LinkedIn's surprising list of the 50 hottest startups for job seekers names Uber as No. 1

LinkedIn released a list of the 50 most sought-after startups by job seekers on Thursday and it was chock full of surprises.

The first surprise was that Uber landed as the No. 1 most desired company by job seekers, despite its very public meltdown in 2017 that led to the resignation of its CEO, Travis Kalanick. It has since hired a new CEO and this survey indicates the company's reputation is rebounding, and quickly.

But that's not all. The whole list includes companies we bet you never heard of, some of them landing in the top 10. And they aren't all located in Silicon Valley either.

LinkedIn determined this list by working with researcher CB Insights. They began with 25,000 startups and then analyzed for:

• headcount growth
• how many people follow the company's LinkedIn page
• how often people looked at employees' LinkedIn pages
• how interested people are in the company's job listings
• and, last by not least, how much poaching the company is accomplishing from other top companies.

Here's a rundown of who these startups are, where they are and what they do.