How a man who graduated from an Indian dental school landed an AI job at Apple

Most people settle for the career they’re initially trained for, finding the leap to a completely different industry too daunting. However, Anshul Gandhi, who graduated from a dental school in India, is not one of them. Soon after getting his degree in dentistry and realising it was not the correct path for him, he worked hard for over a decade to forge a new career in the world of AI. And now, he works as a ‘Senior Machine Learning Engineer’ at Apple.

An Indian-origin techie who works as a Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Apple. (Unsplash, LinkedIn/Anshul G)

Gandhi shared that he realised dentistry isn’t for him in his final year of the course. “Deep down, I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” he told Business Insider. The outlet reported that the techie currently resides in Austin, Texas.

How did he make the change?

After shifting his career, he started building his skills as a developer. “By the time I graduated, I knew I wanted to start my career in this field.”

He set his sights on Big Tech and diligently started working towards the goal, which included developing his skills, learning about AI, and expanding his LinkedIn networking.

Gandhi started exploring the world of AI when it was a lesser-known field and not the biggest trend in the tech industry. “At that time, nobody was talking about AI,” he told the outlet.

What did he study?

According to his LinkedIn profile, he received his bachelor’s degree from Maharishi Markandeshwar. He then secured a master of Science degree from UTHealth Houston. He is presently pursuing a one-year extensive program from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. In addition, he has also acquired several licenses and certifications over the years.

Talking about his UTHealth Houston degree in biomedical informatics, Gandhi told the outlet, “It gave me the technical depth I was looking for, while still feeling connected to my previous experience.”

His career at a glance:

While he worked at a few companies in India, his real journey in the tech world started when he relocated to the US. In 2016, he was a research assistant at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). Then, in 2018, he joined the Health Services Advisory Group, Inc. (HSAG) in the field of data science and advanced analytics.

After leaving HSAG, he worked at Dell for over three years before shifting to UnitedHealth Group as a senior generative AI ML engineer in 2024. After working there for four months, he joined Apple in January 2025.

“I didn’t have a linear path,” he said, adding, “I don’t think a lot of people have a very pre-planned career path. So you can start over, even if it feels impossible.”