Being an electronics and communication engineer, Pallam Raju started his career in the IT field. He worked in Philadelphia and Boston in the USA and in Oslo, Norway, in the field of Computers and Information Technology. He started his career as a Research Assistant at Temple University, USA (1985–86). He then worked as a Research Associate at the Federal Group Incorporated, a management consulting firm at South Natick, USA from 1986–87. He was a Sales Coordinator for the international operations of a computer company, Norsk Data A.S. at Oslo; Norway. He has also been a successful entrepreneur in IT. In 1999, he started and ran the Indian operations of TTM (India) Private Limited (ASIC Design Services), a US based chip design services company at Secunderabad in Andhra Pradesh till he was inducted as the Minister of State for Defense in the United Progressive Alliance government.