Bayonets, Vacuum Cleaners and an Accidental Career in Data
Episode notes
Raj Roy’s working life began far from the typical teenage job. At eighteen, he was guiding tourists from Hong Kong into communist China—crossing guarded borders, learning whom to trust, and once finding himself handcuffed with two bayonets pointed at his chest.
After his father’s death, Raj moved to Australia, briefly pursued a dream of playing professional cricket, and attempted to sell cars despite not knowing how to drive. His journey eventually brought him to Minnesota, where a door-to-door vacuum demonstration—and a wedding ring missing for two years—taught him never to judge people by appearances.
From paper maps and green-screen computers to FoxPro, software testing and data governance, Raj shares how curiosity, pattern recognition and a willingness to begin again carried him across three continents and into a career he never planned.
It’s a story about immigration, reinvention, unexpected opportunity—and discovering that sometimes the things that don’t work out are precisely what point us toward home.
[As a side note, this was the first podcast I recored. In the beginning, you will hear me refer to the show by it's old name - Rich]