Rice leads Texas colleges on LinkedIn's first-ever career success ranking

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Rice University is the top Texas college on LinkedIn's best colleges for long-term career success report. Photo via Rice.edu

Houston’s Rice University leads the Texas schools in LinkedIn’s first-ever ranking of the 50 best U.S. colleges for long-term career success.

Rice appears at No. 31 in the ranking. Southern Methodist University, located in the Dallas suburb of University Park, lands at No. 37 and the University of Texas at Austin shows up at No. 46.

LinkedIn, a career networking site, says the ranking is based on exclusive data about alumni, such as job placement rates, advancement into senior-level jobs, post-graduate formation of startups, and pre-graduation internships.

“A four-year bachelor’s degree is a significant investment of time and money, especially as tuition costs rise and the job market shifts,” the LinkedIn report says. “For millions of Americans, the return on investment is worth it. Those who earn the degree can see an enduring impact on their earning potential and overall career trajectory.”

Where someone earns a degree can have an even bigger impact, according to LinkedIn, as graduates of top programs often land jobs more rapidly, build strong professional networks, and rise to leadership roles more quickly.

“Long-term success isn’t just about landing a great first job; it’s about sustained career growth and opportunity years after graduation,” Andrew Seaman, senior editor-at-large for jobs and career development at LinkedIn News, told Fortune. “For this list, that means looking at how well a school sets alumni up for the long haul.”

Here’s a breakdown of some of the data about the three Texas schools on the LinkedIn list:

Rice University

  • Top industries of graduates: Technology, business consulting, higher education
  • Top post-graduation destinations: Houston, San Francisco Bay Area, New York City
  • Notable skills: MATLAB programming language, engineering design, data science

Southern Methodist University

  • Top industries of graduates: Financial services, business consulting
  • Top post-graduation destinations: Dallas, New York City, Los Angeles
  • Most notable skills: AMPL programming language, Avid iNews content creation system, data science

University of Texas at Austin

  • Top industries of graduates: Technology, medical practices, advertising
  • Top post-graduation destinations: Austin, Dallas, Houston
  • Most notable skills: SOLIDWORKS computer-aided design software, architecture, Avid Media Composer video editing software
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Neither Houston nor Dallas made LinkedIn's inaugural Cities on the Rise report. Photo via Getty Images.

2 Texas cities named on LinkedIn's inaugural 'Cities on the Rise'

jobs data

LinkedIn’s 2025 Cities on the Rise list includes two Texas cities in the top 25—and they aren’t Houston or Dallas.

The Austin metro area came in at No. 18 and the San Antonio metro at No. 23 on the inaugural list that measures U.S. metros where hiring is accelerating, job postings are increasing and talent migration is “reshaping local economies,” according to the company. The report was based on LinkedIn’s exclusive labor market data.

According to the report, Austin, at No. 18, is on the rise due to major corporations relocating to the area. The datacenter boom and investments from tech giants are also major draws to the city, according to LinkedIn. Technology, professional services and manufacturing were listed as the city’s top industries with Apple, Dell and the University of Texas as the top employers.

The average Austin metro income is $80,470, according to the report, with the average home listing at about $806,000.

While many write San Antonio off as a tourist attraction, LinkedIn believes the city is becoming a rising tech and manufacturing hub by drawing “Gen Z job seekers and out-of-state talent.”

USAA, U.S. Air Force and H-E-B are the area’s biggest employers with professional services, health care and government being the top hiring industries. With an average income of $59,480 and an average housing cost of $470,160, San Antonio is a more affordable option than the capital city.

The No. 1 spot went to Grand Rapids due to its growing technology scene. The top 10 metros on the list include:

  • No. 1 Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • No. 2 Boise, Idaho
  • No. 3 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
  • No. 4 Albany, New York
  • No. 5 Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • No. 6 Portland, Maine
  • No. 7 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
  • No. 8 Hartford, Connecticut
  • No. 9 Nashville, Tennessee
  • No. 10 Omaha, Nebraska

See the full report here.

LinkedIn isn't just for job hunters anymore. Photo via Pexels

Houston expert shares 5 tips for optimizing LinkedIn for business, career development

guest column

In today's digital age, LinkedIn has emerged as a powerhouse for professional networking and career development. With over 774 million users worldwide, it is essential to not only have a presence on the platform but also to use it effectively.

As a digital marketing consultant, I work closely with companies and leaders to help them leverage LinkedIn successfully. Here are some of my tips and tricks for getting the most out of LinkedIn.

Keep your profile updated

Your LinkedIn profile is your digital resume and the first impression you make on potential connections. Having once been known mostly as a platform for job seekers, an up-to-date LinkedIn profile is essential for showcasing your skills, experiences, and achievements. Relatively new features such as your profile headline and skill summary reflect your current professional status and aspirations. Include a professional-looking profile photo and don’t leave the header image blank; consider one promoting your company, one of you “in action” speaking at an event, or sharing a mission statement.

Curating a comprehensive LinkedIn profile with past work experiences and education alma maters helps you build a more relevant community. Volunteer experiences, publications, and special projects serve as a great means to diversify your profile and highlight skills beyond your professional work. Asking for recommendations from colleagues or supervisors adds noteworthy credibility in creating a well-rounded profile.

Define your audience and goals

Before diving into the sea of connections, think about your goals for using LinkedIn. Are you looking for job opportunities, networking with industry leaders, or building a thought leadership brand? Identifying your specific objectives will help you tailor your profile and content accordingly. Who are you hoping will see and engage with your content? Determine your target audience, whether it is professionals in your industry, potential employers, or like-minded individuals. This will guide your engagement and content strategy

Establish a clear voice and persona

Consistency is key when building your online persona. Your LinkedIn profile should reflect your professional identity, yet your voice should be genuine to your goals. Are you a brand promoter working to advance a company’s mission, a thought leader with expertise in a niche field, or an industry expert who can speak knowledgably about broad trending topics? Whether you are aiming for a formal, informative tone or a more casual, conversational approach, maintaining a consistent voice across your profile and content helps build a recognizable personal brand.

Don’t be shy to show your audience the authentic “you”. While focused on professional content sharing, LinkedIn can also be a place to post about personal experiences. For instance, a recent family vacation could be a lead-in to explaining how your father was the one who put you on track for your current career path or a photo from a race you completed to raise money for a rare disease that your best friend suffers from.

Use varied tools and engage

LinkedIn offers a variety of content formats, including text posts, articles, images, videos, polls, and more. Experimenting with different formats can help you identify what resonates best with your audience. Share industry insights, success stories, professional accomplishments, and upcoming speaking opportunities while incorporating multimedia elements to make your content more engaging. Ask questions – give your audience a reason to engage by leaving them with food for thought at the end of your posts. Try to be consistent with your posting strategy; a good rule of thumb is one post per week.

Maybe even more important than posting your own content is engaging with others’ content. Find groups that resonate with you and follow people that have similar interests to you. LinkedIn has one of the largest editorial teams across all news platforms. Many people are unaware of the LinkedIn news feed (top right of the home page) and how editors build their stories off trending content from LinkedIn users. Don’t forget about hashtags – this is how people and organizations will find your content and engage with you.

Individualize success measurements

Success on LinkedIn varies from person to person based on individual goals. Whether you are aiming to increase your profile views and engagement, grow your followers, or connect with influential professionals, define your own metrics for success. LinkedIn has built in analytics tools to monitor the growth of your network and assess the impact of your content on achieving your objectives. Regularly review and adjust your strategy based on the insights gained from these metrics.

Mastering any social media platform, including LinkedIn, takes time to build a community and establish your voice. By strategically navigating the platform, you can unlock new opportunities, expand your professional network, and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. So what are you waiting for – polish up your profile, start writing, and let LinkedIn be the catalyst for your professional success.

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Arielle Rogg is the principal and founder of Rogg Enterprises, a Houston-based company providing digital marketing for health care innovators.

Houston is a good place for creators of digital content, such as podcasters, bloggers, writers, and strategists. Photo by Laurence Dutton/Getty Images

Houston named national hot spot for this tech career, says report

DIGITAL DOMINANCE

The Greater Houston area ranks as one of the hot spots in the country for an in-demand area of tech expertise.

A new report from career website LinkedIn looks at an array of career categories exhibiting the highest year-over-year growth rates in hiring (based on the period from last April to October).

The report pinpoints Houston as one of the hottest U.S. markets for creators of digital content, such as podcasters, bloggers, writers, and strategists. For those looking to transition, the majority of these digital content creators have a bachelor of arts degree, while some 25 percent have a masters, the report notes. Top skills for these positions include editing, writing, public speaking.

Meanwhile, DFW is listed as a "top region" for UX specialists, including UX consultants, designers, and researchers along with the San Francisco Bay area and Greater Chicago area. (What, exactly, is UX? While the field and job can have many facets, one industry site puts it this succinctly: "UX design is the process of designing (digital or physical) products that are useful, easy to use, and delightful to interact with.")

The Austin area ranks as one of the hottest spots in the U.S. for artificial intelligence (AI). The report says jobs like artificial intelligence specialist, machine learning researcher, and machine learning engineer are in particularly high demand in the Austin area, as well as Denver and San Francisco Bay.

In 2019, the tech sector in Texas wielded an economic impact of $141.7 billion and employed more than 1 million people (including AI engineers, UX designers, and digital content creators), according to CompTIA, a trade association for the IT industry.

"Technology powered job growth and economic gains in the past decade in Texas and across the country while delivering countless benefits in how we work, communicate, create, and share," Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA, said in a 2020 release.

U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Texas at Austin among the country's top five schools for undergraduate students studying AI, an arm of computer science that simulates human intelligence.

Globally, AI is a fast-growing specialty among employers. A 2020 report from the World Economic Forum identified AI and machine learning positions as the No. 1 emerging category of jobs. Ninety-three percent of U.S. companies surveyed by the organization indicated they had adopted AI technology.

In 2019, job website Indeed reported that average salaries for the highest-paid AI jobs in the U.S. ranged from $109,314 to $142,859.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Starting your career in Houston? You're in the right place. Photo via Pexels

Report recognizes Houston as a top city to launch a career

starting out

First-time job hunters are facing a competitive job market with historic unemployment and an unstable economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, Houston, according to a recent report, might give its residents an advantage.

The report, released May 20 by career website LinkedIn, places Houston at No. 10 on a list of the places in the U.S. that are best suited for new college graduates who are diving into the job market. The list comes out as recent grads confront a job market that's "shaping up to become one of the worst in recent memory," according to The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news outlet that covers education.

LinkedIn considered three factors for its ranking: affordable rent, good starting salaries, and job availability. Houston's median rent sits at $1,377 per month (all types and sizes of rental properties), LinkedIn says, while its median annual salary for entry-level "career starter" jobs stands at $69,800.

Two other Texas metros appear in the top 15:

  • No. 13 San Antonio, where the median rent is $1,219 and the entry-level salary is $59,900
  • No. 15 Dallas-Fort Worth, where the median rent is $1,423 and the entry-level salary is $65,300

Austin, consistently touted as a magnet for college grads, failed to make the LinkedIn cut.

"What you [also] won't find on this list are the traditional coastal job magnets — New York, the Washington, D.C. area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles," LinkedIn points out. "Those cities may still offer some of the highest starting salaries, but their sky-high rents mean income doesn't stretch nearly as far."

Among the top occupations in the metro areas on LinkedIn's list are software engineer, registered nurse, teacher, project manager, project engineer, consultant, and analyst.

It might be difficult to find those jobs, though. The Conference Board, a research group that monitors business trends, says the number of new job postings in Texas declined from 255,000 in March to 175,000 in April.

To deal with the current economic realities, some new college grads are making sacrifices. In a survey by Monster.com and Wakefield Research, 55 percent of graduating seniors indicated they'd applied for a job they knew wasn't a good fit, and 52 percent said they would accept a lower salary.

"They're feeling desperate," Vicki Salemi, a career expert at Monster.com, told The Hill news website.

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This article original ran on CultureMap.

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Houston doctor wins NIH grant to test virtual reality for ICU delirium

Virtual healing

Think of it like a reverse version of The Matrix. A person wakes up in a hospital bed and gets plugged into a virtual reality game world in order to heal.

While it may sound far-fetched, Dr. Hina Faisal, a Houston Methodist critical care specialist in the Department of Surgery, was recently awarded a $242,000 grant from the National Institute of Health to test the effects of VR games on patients coming out of major surgery in the intensive care unit (ICU).

The five-year study will focus on older patients using mental stimulation techniques to reduce incidences of delirium. The award comes courtesy of the National Institute on Aging K76 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging.

“As the population of older adults continues to grow, the need for effective, scalable interventions to prevent postoperative complications like delirium is more important than ever,” Faisal said in a news release.

ICU delirium is a serious condition that can lead to major complications and even death. Roughly 87 percent of patients who undergo major surgery involving intubation will experience some form of delirium coming out of anesthesia. Causes can range from infection to drug reactions. While many cases are mild, prolonged ICU delirium may prevent a patient from following medical advice or even cause them to hurt themselves.

Using VR games to treat delirium is a rapidly emerging and exciting branch of medicine. Studies show that VR games can help promote mental activity, memory and cognitive function. However, the full benefits are currently unknown as studies have been hampered by small patient populations.

Faisal believes that half of all ICU delirium cases are preventable through VR treatment. Currently, a general lack of knowledge and resources has been holding back the advancement of the treatment.

Hopefully, the work of Faisal in one of the busiest medical cities in the world can alleviate that problem as she spends the next half-decade plugging patients into games to aid in their healing.

New accelerator joins the Ion and more Houston innovation news to know

Trending News

Editor's note: The Houston innovation scene is buzzing with big news this month, from a new accelerator joining the fold at the Ion to pre-IPO funding and national expansion plans. Below are the five most-read InnovationMap stories from Feb. 1-15, 2026:

New accelerator for AI startups to launch at Houston's Ion this spring

The new AI Native Dual-Use Sports, Health & Wellness Accelerator is expected to launch in March. Photo courtesy of the Ion

The Collectiv Foundation and Rice University have established a sports, health and wellness startup accelerator at the Ion District’s Collectiv, a sports-focused venture capital platform. The AI Native Dual-Use Sports, Health & Wellness Accelerator is scheduled to formally launch in March. Continue reading.

10+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events in February

From recurring monthly favorites to the return of annual celebrations and summits, here's what not to miss in February. Photo courtesy the Ion.

February may be a short month, but its event calendar isn’t. From recurring monthly favorites to the return of annual celebrations and summits, here are the Houston business and innovation events not to miss — and how to register. Continue reading.

Houston lab-test startup seeks $1M for nationwide expansion

Jim Gebhart, founder and CEO of TheLabCafe.com. Courtesy photo.

Health care industry veteran Jim Gebhart knew there had to be a better way for patients to access lab services, especially those with high health insurance deductibles or no insurance at all. Continue reading.

Houston wearable biosensing company closes $13M pre-IPO round

Wellysis is known for its continuous ECG/EKG monitor with AI reporting, known as the S-Patch. Photo via wellysis.com.

Wellysis, a Seoul, South Korea-headquartered wearable biosensing company with its U.S. subsidiary based in Houston, has closed a $13.5 million pre-IPO funding round and plans to expand its Texas operations. Continue reading. Continue reading.

Texas booms as No. 3 best state to start a business right now

Texas is rebounding in a report of the best states to start a business. Photo via Getty Images

High employment growth and advantageous entrepreneurship rates have led Texas into a triumphant No. 3 spot in WalletHub's ranking of "Best and Worst States to Start a Business" for 2026. Continue reading.

Houston scientists develop breakthrough AI-driven process to design, decode genetic circuits

biotech breakthrough

Researchers at Rice University have developed an innovative process that uses artificial intelligence to better understand complex genetic circuits.

A study, published in the journal Nature, shows how the new technique, known as “Combining Long- and Short-range Sequencing to Investigate Genetic Complexity,” or CLASSIC, can generate and test millions of DNA designs at the same time, which, according to Rice.

The work was led by Rice’s Caleb Bashor, deputy director for the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute and member of the Ken Kennedy Institute. Bashor has been working with Kshitij Rai and Ronan O’Connell, co-first authors on the study, on the CLASSIC for over four years, according to a news release.

“Our work is the first demonstration that you can use AI for designing these circuits,” Bashor said in the release.

Genetic circuits program cells to perform specific functions. Finding the circuit that matches a desired function or performance "can be like looking for a needle in a haystack," Bashor explained. This work looked to find a solution to this long-standing challenge in synthetic biology.

First, the team developed a library of proof-of-concept genetic circuits. It then pooled the circuits and inserted them into human cells. Next, they used long-read and short-read DNA sequencing to create "a master map" that linked each circuit to how it performed.

The data was then used to train AI and machine learning models to analyze circuits and make accurate predictions for how untested circuits might perform.

“We end up with measurements for a lot of the possible designs but not all of them, and that is where building the (machine learning) model comes in,” O’Connell explained in the release. “We use the data to train a model that can understand this landscape and predict things we were not able to generate data on.”

Ultimately, the researchers believe the circuit characterization and AI-driven understanding can speed up synthetic biology, lead to faster development of biotechnology and potentially support more cell-based therapy breakthroughs by shedding new light on how gene circuits behave, according to Rice.

“We think AI/ML-driven design is the future of synthetic biology,” Bashor added in the release. “As we collect more data using CLASSIC, we can train more complex models to make predictions for how to design even more sophisticated and useful cellular biotechnology.”

The team at Rice also worked with Pankaj Mehta’s group in the department of physics at Boston University and Todd Treangen’s group in Rice’s computer science department. Research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, Office of Naval Research, the Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, the American Heart Association, National Library of Medicine, the National Science Foundation, Rice’s Ken Kennedy Institute and the Rice Institute of Synthetic Biology.

James Collins, a biomedical engineer at MIT who helped establish synthetic biology as a field, added that CLASSIC is a new, defining milestone.

“Twenty-five years ago, those early circuits showed that we could program living cells, but they were built one at a time, each requiring months of tuning,” said Collins, who was one of the inventors of the toggle switch. “Bashor and colleagues have now delivered a transformative leap: CLASSIC brings high-throughput engineering to gene circuit design, allowing exploration of combinatorial spaces that were previously out of reach. Their platform doesn’t just accelerate the design-build-test-learn cycle; it redefines its scale, marking a new era of data-driven synthetic biology.”

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