Narayanan[2] after which he unsuccessfully contested 1999 Gujarat assembly election from Gandhinagar constituency under Indian National Congress.

Though both of them were selected for Engineering in JNTU Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, T. N. Seshan decided to join Madras Christian College (MCC).

He cleared the UPSC civil services examination in 1954 and joined the IAS as a trainee of 1955 Tamil Nadu cadre.

[5] He moved to the Secretariat for Rural Development in Madras (now Chennai) and appointed director of programs and deputy secretary, where he managed a local administration programme for panchayats, from 1958 to 1962.

After two and a half years, he went to study at Harvard University on Edward S. Mason Fellowship where he earned a master's degree in public administration in 1968.

After differences with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he resigned and moved to Delhi where he was appointed as a member of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission and was in charge of personnel.

[5] He was appointed 18th Cabinet Secretary, the senior-most position in the Indian civil service hierarchy, in 1989[9] and later served as a member of Planning Commission.

[23] He curbed several malpractices like bribing or intimidating voters, distribution of liquor during elections, use of government funds and machinery for campaigning, appealing to voters' caste or communal feelings, use of places of worship for campaigns, use of loudspeakers and high volume music without prior written permission.

[24] During the 1999 Indian general elections, due to his reforms, 1488 candidates were disqualified for three years for failing to submit their expenditure accounts.

[28][5] He was fluent in several languages including, Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit, English, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati.