Dropped out twice.
Taught myself to code.
Built my own path.

I'm Steven, a self-taught software engineer raised in Jamaica, Queens. I live in Hell's Kitchen now. Seven years in, I've shipped DTC storefronts and HIPAA-regulated health software, and right now I'm a contingent worker at Anthropic via HireArt.

Read my storySee the work
Steven with his family
Steven Espinal
Steven working on a laptop outdoors
7+
Years shipping software
100%
Self taught engineer
78
Verified certifications

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”
— Carl Bard

The mindset shift that changed how I work

The shortversion.

I grew up in an attic in Jamaica, Queens, and taught myself to code to help my dad's business. I dropped out of college. Twice. I live in Hell's Kitchen now.

Then I went from a $75k first job to a $170k one in under three years, and finished the degree I'd walked away from while working full time.

Read the whole thingQuestions I get a lot

Experience

  1. Anthropic

    Contingent Worker via HireArt

    2026 — Now

  2. Thesis

    Software Engineer

    2025 — 2026

  3. BrightInsight

    Software Engineer

    2022 — 2025

  4. Cazton

    Software Engineer

    2022 — 2022

  5. PLNETWORKS

    Software Engineer

    2020 — 2022

Education

  1. Western Governors University

    B.S. Computer Science

    2024 — 2026

  2. Columbia University

    Engineering Coding Boot Camp

    2019 — 2019

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Selected work

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Writing

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· 5 min read

How I Started Coding and Why It Means So Much to Me

A personal journey of coding, growth, and giving back.

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Stack

Frontend

  • React and Next.js
  • TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS
  • React Native
  • Design systems

Backend and platform

  • Node.js
  • REST and realtime APIs
  • AWS
  • Vercel
  • Shopify storefronts and apps

How I build

  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • Figma
  • Git and GitHub

Always learning

78 verified certifications on LinkedIn, I've spent thousands of hours of tutorials and courses on Udemy and elsewhere until the skills were real enough to ship.

See all 78 on LinkedIn

FAQ

Questions I get a lot.

Why go back for a CS degree if you were already at $170k?

Because the work had already outrun the paperwork, and I was tired of that gap. I’d walked away from two schools already — Baruch didn’t even offer a CS degree, and by BMCC I was already writing production code, so sitting through intro classes for a piece of paper felt backwards. I enrolled at WGU in 2024, kept the full-time engineering job, and finished the B.S. in August 2026. Third school. First degree, eight years later than the “normal” path. I wanted the foundation, and I wanted to close a loop I’d left open twice.

How did you get hired without a degree?

I showed work. The first scripts were for my dad’s business in 2017, automating the data entry that was eating his week. Columbia’s coding bootcamp gave me three months of full-stack JavaScript and a cohort in 2019 — a program that doesn’t even exist anymore. PLNETWORKS hired me in 2020 on a portfolio, not a diploma. After that, each role was about what I’d already shipped: production bugs, HIPAA software, storefronts. The degree came eight years later. It didn’t open the first door.

What actually moved compensation from $75k to $170k?

Two years of shipping at PLNETWORKS, then a move to Cazton that roughly doubled it, then BrightInsight in 2022 — HIPAA-regulated software at $170k. Same skills, different rooms. The market paid for proof. I treated interviews like case studies of work I’d already done, not like a plea for a first chance.

Where are you from, and where are you now?

I was raised in Jamaica, Queens. First thirteen years in an attic. I live in Hell’s Kitchen now. The city didn’t get bigger. I just moved west of the same story.

How do you actually use Cursor and Claude?

As a tutor and a pair, not as a ghostwriter. I still read the diff. I still throw away the parts that look clever and aren’t. The tools make the boring parts faster so I can spend the hours on the decisions that have to be mine.

What would you tell someone learning to code right now?

Build something your family can use. Put it in public. Don’t wait for a school to bless the start. I dropped out twice, then finished. Both of those were the right call at the time.