 He was among the first batch of Bachelor of Arts graduates majoring in Economics from the University of Malaya in Singapore in 1959.Before venturing into politics, he served as Assistant Secretary of the Labour and Manpower Ministry from 1960 and Director of Social Economics in the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in the Prime Minister's Department from 1968 until his resignation to contest the Teluk Kemang parliamentary seat in 1974.Pathmanaban was initially encouraged to join the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) and enter politics by Tun Abdul Razak, who saw his potential and his education from a prestigious university as invaluable.