Published: April 29, 2026 at 5:29 pm
If hard work truly pays off, then Raji Kudus Adewale is a prime example.
Born in Nigeria, Raji came to Scotland in December 2022 with one suitcase and his brother by his side. He had a degree, was studying for an MSc at Glasgow Caledonian University and had data skills after building tech products on contract back home.
But what he did not have was any understanding of how the UK job market actually worked – or anyone to help him figure it out.
Unsuccessful with all the junior data roles he applied for in 2023, it was another, very different job rejection that really hit home.
“The moment that broke me — and then rebuilt me — was getting rejected for a kitchen porter position at the Radisson Red hotel in Glasgow,” he explains.
“I had studied data science. I had built machine learning models. I had an MSc underway. And I could not get a job washing dishes.”
In May 2024 — 14 months after that kitchen porter rejection — he received an offer from JP Morgan Chase as a senior product associate.
So how did he get there? And how did he come to launch DeDataHub – “the platform I wished had existed when I was washing plates”?