Here's how Houston ranks among the best U.S. cities to start a career

New Horizons

The 10-county Houston metro added 126,720 residents from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025. Photo via Getty Images

College graduates staying in Houston are in the right place to be, according to a new WalletHub study. Houston has emerged on a new list of the 100 best places in America for starting a career.

Houston ranked 51st out of 182 U.S. cities based on its quality of life and vast opportunities for new college graduates transitioning into the workforce. The study compared each city based on 25 relevant metrics, like the availability of entry-level jobs, each city's annual job growth rate, workforce diversity, median annual income, housing affordability, and others.

Atlanta, Orlando, and Austin respectively comprised the top three best places to start a career.

Houston ranked 48th overall for its quality of life, and appeared No. 51 for its professional opportunities for new college graduates. Whether its starting a new business or entering a high-earning job field, Houston has many more opportunities than the vast majority of other cities on the list.

"The best cities for starting a career not only have a lot of job opportunities but also provide substantial income growth potential and satisfying work conditions," said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. "It’s also important to consider factors such as how fun a city is to live in or how good of a place it is for raising a family, to ensure life satisfaction outside of your career."

Other Texas hotspots for early career professionals
Austin boasts the best quality of life out of all 182 cities in the report, and the 10th best professional opportunities. The state capital also outperformed all other U.S. cities with the highest monthly average starting salaries for early career workers after being adjusted for the city's cost of living. Austin also offers the 15th highest number of entry level jobs per capita, the report said.

In a separate comparison of the cities with the largest share of residents aged 25 to 34, Austin ranked No. 5 nationally.

"In addition, Austin’s median annual household income is the 10th-highest in the nation, providing strong earning potential for those starting a career or a business," the report said. "Austin is also the sixth best city for singles, offering a vibrant social scene alongside strong career opportunities for young professionals."

Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas ranked as the second-best city in Texas for new grads to start a career and 12th nationally. Additional cities that made it into the top 100 best U.S. cities for early career professionals include Plano (No. 32), Irving (No. 42), Fort Worth (No. 64), Amarillo (No. 73), and San Antonio (No. 85).

The top 10 best cities for starting a career are:

  • No. 1 – Atlanta, Georgia
  • No. 2 – Orlando, Florida
  • No. 3 – Austin, Texas
  • No. 4 – Tampa, Florida
  • No. 5 – Miami, Florida
  • No. 6 – Charleston, South Carolina
  • No. 7 – Pittsburgh
  • No. 8 – Knoxville, Tennessee
  • No. 9 – Salt Lake City, Utah
  • No. 10 – Columbia, South Carolina
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This article first appeared on CultureMap.com.

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Many Houstonians are unemployed, laid off, or furloughed amid the pandemic. Others are literally burned out and ready for a life-altering career change. This expert has advice for both. Photo via Pexels

Expert shares advice for Houstonians experiencing a pandemic-sparked career change

Guest column

I've had so many pivots in my professional career; moving across the country, internal promotions, leaving a corporate job to launch my own company, and repositioning myself and my brand in new markets. But I'm one of those people who enjoy lots of change, and as I've continued in my career journey, I've found that those sentiments are not shared by many.

Making a career transition can not only be stressful for a majority of professionals but can paralyze people from making decisions that carry their livelihood alongside them. This is one reason I am fueled to help professionals, to be a support system for these complexities and helping them make decisions based on facts and strengths, not on fear.

As a career coach, it's my job to find a way to piece together years of experience for professionals in order to tell a story of growth, change, and transferable potential to sway key decision-makers for employment and economic opportunity.

Over the past several years, I've seen many trends in client challenges, storytelling similarities and developed a knack for helping people with complex stories make a successful career or entrepreneurial leap.

A new approach to career transitions

But then at the end of 2019, COVID-19 crept across Asia, slowly derailing markets, leading me to shift my focus to supporting my European clients as they began their lockdowns.

Job offers were being taken off the table, hiring freezes were put in place and travel required a two-week quarantine at either end. The fear in each of my clients' voices was palpable, and my resolve needed to be strong. I needed to stay steady, calm, and think more strategically than ever before to help them navigate this unchartered territory.

Within two months, the United States had been infiltrated by the virus, and the layoffs and furloughs began piling up. Now I was working across nations and states going through different phases of impact and needing to understand how to support these entrepreneurs and professionals in navigating through this.

Navigating the nuances of career change

What I realized is that I already had these answers. Navigating complexity has been my place of zen and working with intelligent, hungry individuals like yourselves continued to fuel my ability to innovate strategy and make a significant impact on career transitions.

I began to divide clients into priorities: furloughed and need work, laid off, overworked and need an exit, career epiphany, and entrepreneurs needing to reevaluate their business models.

If you were furloughed, there was a sense of hope, anxious to return to the workforce, and leaving bitterness for many when that call never came. In the state of Texas, 2.5 million professionals have lost their jobs, and only 1.8 million returned to work in 2021 to date.

In Houston, unemployment rates have maintained a high rate of about 8 percent in recent months. At the peak of COVID-19, the unemployment rates spiked significantly to more than 14 percent which translates to a large number of qualified people out of work.

Laid off and evaluating next steps

For those who were laid off, we had to evaluate financials. Was this a three-month endeavor or an ASAP, "my electricity will be shut off in two weeks if I don't find a job" scenario?

That dictated how we approached it. For the longer timeframe, we looked at roles carefully and targeted the best outcomes, tailored branding documents, and profiles and were highly intentional about applications.

In the second scenario, we made mandatory updates to branding and started the rapid apply approach to line up interviews quickly — even if it was going to be a short stint or a less than a glorious long-term option.

Overworked and anxious

Overworked and anxious to leave their jobs, this group had different desperation in their voice. They had previously enjoyed what they did, had an ambivalent outlook toward their employer, and thought things were 'going well.' This all changed when their support staff was sent home on furlough and those hours and that workload was enveloped by their department. These professionals felt blindsided.

How could things go from 'all is well' to 'get me out of here NOW!' in only a few short weeks? The mental, emotional, and physical stresses were and continue to be a leading factor in the rise in depression across the nation from 20 to 25 percent to 40 to 50 percent.

For this group of professionals, we focused on the role they had before the pandemic hit and those areas of fulfillment. We also focused on boundary setting to help support a move to a company where boundaries would need to be upheld to promote a healthier life balance.

Career epiphany clients

Next were my career epiphany clients. These professionals were awoken from the monotony that was once their career. Working from home, having different priorities, and learning to juggle many hats afforded new perspectives. This also meant that these professionals were no longer fulfilled in the direction of their careers, and were prepared to start anew.

This opened up an entire world of possibilities.

Unlike the career changes who had immediacy and trauma associated with their move, these epiphany clients were optimistic and strangely calm amidst the chaos and weight of this decision. Their priorities were no longer focused on one area but encompassed a much more holistic viewpoint.

And so, having the calm on our side, we would spend time working through their work attributes, close values, and defining their innate drivers in life. This work allowed us to choose roles that spoke to them.

Entrepreneurs

In the last group were my entrepreneurs. These business owners were looking at a brand new market and not knowing how to evolve their business model to fit the needs and budgets of their consumers. So many were filled with doubt on how they could ask for more money, or not have to increase their working hours to make the math work.

Our work felt like an enormous puzzle, putting all the right colors together first, then seeking out the corners and edges, until we could work toward the middle and most ambiguous pieces.

Together we redefined their clients (were they the same? Did they have the same needs now?) and how to best serve them. This required them to get out of their tried and true practices, as needs and budgets have also changed and evolved for their customers and clients. So we reverse-engineered into new pricing and service offerings that would provide immense value in a time when people needed it the most.

Each set of variables were unique, but the mindset and fears were so aligned with one another within each of these groups that I could provide streamlined tools that I knew would work to move the dial in their progression and overall success.

Innovative approach to career transitions

Utilizing resources that I already had, meant I just needed to find innovation in my approach. How was I to get professionals and entrepreneurs to learn and apply at rapid speed? How would I get through to them during this stressful time?

The approach was to give more actionable tools for them to leave each call with purpose and a sense of adventure ahead. I utilized a goal-setting sheet to identify priorities and lead from their reality, rather than standard best practices.

We focused on 4 key areas:

  1. Financials
  2. Growth
  3. Roles
  4. Timeline.

I realized that the biggest fears were in the unknown. So if we could start at a basic framework of knowing what they needed in order to pay bills and not disrupt life more, we could then focus on what was in their ideal, their wants, their bigger goals.

But I found that almost everyone trying to envision more money, or growth in roles during a global pandemic, didn't know how to focus on the future if they didn't know what needed to happen now, in the current state.

Everyone's reality was different, yet the momentum and freedom created by writing down their most vulnerable, essential needs, created a release in their energy and made conversation fill with hope. Having created a tangible plan of action had more impact than ever before. I took this momentum and challenged clients to do their homework, speak to their partners, their families.

With every group of transitioning professionals, this worked. My analogies and anecdotes changed and evolved as the year progressed, but this new starting point was the cornerstone to build confidence and momentum quickly.

Building a new path

As we start to see Texas opening up its businesses and mask requirements starting to shift, we will continue to see people in flux.

Overcoming storms, a pandemic, depression rates increasing, and an influx of new residents, the state will continue to find resilience. But professionals need to understand that before letting fear set in, there are steps you can take to release that pressure and build a new path, a new career, and a new story.

Understand and embrace your reality, write it down, uncover what is leading the fear, then take the first step to eliminate it.

Making a transition takes effort, but understanding your options based on your needs, and then your wants, will help create the movement you need to take that next step and keep moving in the right direction.

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Briar Dougherty, CEO and president of Career Organic, an Atlanta-based career coaching company.

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Houston founders launch edtech startup, pilot to pinpoint why students are struggling

learning gaps

Early detection. It sounds simple enough: identify a problem before it has the chance to become a bigger one.

But in practice, early detection is much more difficult to navigate, especially in education, when it comes to identifying the reasons behind a student's academic struggles.

That’s why co-founders Alapati “Al” Ware and Estela Montanez launched Progress Report, a Houston-built K-12 learning-intelligence platform designed to go beyond identifying that a student is struggling.

The platform recently began its pilot program with 35 educators and more than 200 students in Texas and Arizona.

“It’s a micro-learning school that works with children with disabilities, primarily dyslexia and nonverbal students,” Ware tells InnovationMap.

The platform is also being used by homeschool parents, home teachers and Houston educators, including those at SWPS College & Career Preparatory Academy, a Houston charter school.

Ware says Progress Report was designed to fill a gap he and Montanez saw in existing edtech. Some platforms cater almost entirely to students, leaving teachers with little insight into if and how a child is learning. Others focus heavily on district data, where “the student is just a number,” leaving teachers to navigate disconnected tools.

“Our goal was [to] focus purely on the teacher because the teacher is the backbone,” Ware says.

Progress Report traces student performance to learning gaps and prerequisite skills, helping educators understand not only where a student is struggling, but what may be causing it.

The platform then helps teachers build individualized instruction for general education students, students with special education and Individualized Education Program (IEP) needs, and Spanish-speaking learners—all within one educator-controlled system.

The goal is to reduce the guesswork and hours of manual work educators can spend developing individualized lesson plans.

Progress Report helps idenitify learning gaps and common roadblocks for each student. Image courtesy Progress Report

For Ware and Montanez, the mission is also personal.

The concept dates back to around 2023, when the co-founders first had to navigate and address their children’s educational needs.

Ware, Progress Report’s CEO and CTO with a background in edtech, built the platform end-to-end after watching his daughter, who had an IEP related to speech, struggle to get the support she needed.

Montanez, the company’s COO, brought another perspective. Her son is on the autism spectrum. She now leads Progress Report’s operations, partnerships and pilot execution while helping carry its focus on bilingual families from Puerto Rico to Houston.

Together, they began researching ways to personalize their children’s learning and help them progress academically. Montanez’s son went on to become an AP student and high school athlete, while Ware’s daughter began reading more than two grade levels above her grade, they tell InnovationMap.

But Progress Report isn’t designed simply to give a struggling student more work.

Take a student who appears to have difficulty with math.

The problem may not actually be math, the founders share. The student could understand the calculations but struggle to comprehend complex words used in a math problem.

Progress Report is designed to trace those performance patterns back to learning gaps, prerequisite skills or other instructional barriers. From there, it can recommend a next instructional step while leaving the educator in control.

The same concept applies to accommodations.

The system can read IEPs, 504 Plans, Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAFPs), evaluations and other special education records. Approved IEP goals can then be mapped into the student’s learning graph, while accommodations can carry over into lesson planning and question delivery.

The founders say that approach separates Progress Report from simply adding another artificial intelligence chatbot to a classroom. And still, they believe teachers have to remain at the center.

Teachers, in fact, helped build Progress Report.

The founders began meeting with Houston-area educators months before the pilot. Their feedback helped shape the platform before testing began.

“We’ve been building alongside these educators,” Ware says.

Parents are another piece.

Progress Report can give parents access to their child’s learning record so they can see learning gaps as they develop. Teachers can also see information on work being completed at home when the parent and educator are working together.

After the pilot wraps, Ware and Montanez plan to introduce a $29.99 monthly subscription for homeschool parents, teachers and other educators. They say the price was intentionally kept relatively low to help make the tools more accessible.

They are also exploring ways to work with organizations that could help families who can’t afford the platform.

Moving forward, the goal is considerably bigger.

Over the next five years, Ware and Montanez want Progress Report to become what they describe as a “gold standard” in every state. They know getting there will require building relationships with educators, technology leaders, policymakers and school board members.

For now, they’re starting with a few hundred students and a question that sounds simple but can be remarkably difficult to answer: Why is this student struggling?

If Progress Report works the way its founders envision, teachers and parents will have a clearer answer.

Pioneering cohousing development opens in Houston's historic 2nd Ward

Housing in Hou

An experimental, multi-generational building in the East End is now open and accepting residents. Only 10 of the 33 units remain available at East End Commons, the first project from CoHousing Houston.

Located at 115 Lenox, East End Commons was first conceived in 2017 and is designed to combine the security of home ownership with the community aspect of apartment life, essentially a condominium but with added focus on bringing neighbors together.

Units range from 900-2,000 square feet, offering ample private home space, but with a large Common House area and central courtyard for gatherings, working, and interaction. Large front porches encourage people to spend time outside where they can meet their neighbors, as do extensive foot paths for casual meetings.

"At East End Commons, you know your neighbors before you move in — so you have a network of people and spaces that are immediately there for you," said founding resident Kelli Soika. "We designed for larger shared spaces versus larger personal spaces in order to foster the breakdown of the barriers that lead to loneliness."

Combating loneliness and isolation is certainly necessary. A 2025 survey conducted by the American Psychological Association shows that most Americans feel a sense of societal division and lonely. A loss of "third spaces," where people gather outside the home or work, is a prime factor. East End Commons aims to alleviate some of that disconnectedness.

"I wanted to live in a neighborhood that is imbued with a sense of community above the individual, like we have all experienced in Houston during times of disaster recovery," said Lynn Morstead, one of East End Commons‘ founding residents. "In those instances, such as Hurricane Harvey, we surface from our separateness and come together in new and unexpected ways. With East End Commons, the goal is to translate that notion beyond a set period of time and make it a fixture of everyday life. I call it 'disaster-free neighborliness.'"

East End Commons was designed by Kathleen English of English + Associates. Sustainability is part of the project's design, with amenities such as geothermal heating and cooling exchange HVAC, pre-heated water systems, low-energy use air conditioning and heating, and native landscaping.

Prices for units range from $300,000 to the $900,000s, which can be more than double the home price in the rapidly gentrifying East End. HOA fees not only help maintain communal areas, they also cover shared internet, water, and other communal expenses. Similarly, government of the building is handled democratically via a community board that aims to make decisions by building consensus.

For more information, email info@cohousinghouston.com or call 832-900-2919.

MD Anderson president to retire after nine years, interim successor named

retirement plan

An era is ending at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

On Aug. 26, Dr. Peter WT Pisters announced his plans to retire from his role as president of the comprehensive cancer center. He will work on a smooth transition of leadership with interim president Dr. Jeffrey E. Lee throughout September.

“I first arrived at UT MD Anderson 32 years ago with a passion for doing everything I could to advance our mission to end cancer. Serving as the only faculty member to become president, and now marking nine years in the role, I can say with great pride and gratitude that there is no better place than UT MD Anderson to turn hope into healing for patients and families everywhere,” Pisters said in a news release. “With a timeless strategy, a strong leadership team, unprecedented levels of financial health, and a priceless culture anchored in our deeply held Core Values, now is the right time for me to transition to other opportunities. UT MD Anderson has never been stronger, and its future has never been brighter.”

Pisters assumed the presidency in 2017 and helped launch some of the most cutting-edge new clinics in MD Anderson history. One of those was the James P. Allison Institute, named for the Nobel Laureate scientist who discovered a way to suppress immune response on tumors so that immune cells would attack cancer cells instead. As head of his titular clinic, Allison pioneered several new immunotherapies against cancer.

Pisters also oversaw the creation of the Institute for Data Science in Oncology in 2024, an innovative consortium of scientists dedicated to enhancing single-cell imaging to improve precision in cancer treatments. The institute also brought together teams to use data-driven analytics regarding safety, quality and access.

The UT System Board of Regents praised the leadership and work of Pisters in a statement, wishing him well in the next phase of his career.

“The Board of Regents and I are profoundly grateful to Dr. Pisters for his exceptional presidency over the past nine years and for thoughtfully concluding his service when UT MD Anderson is thriving at its best position of peak performance, strength and impact. We wish him our very best with his retirement and in his next chapter,” Kevin P. Eltife, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, added in the release.

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