[otras]

As many others have mentioned, the job title is largely arbitrary (at least in the US), and the easiest way to become a software engineer is probably to get hired for a job with that title!

As for whether or not you consider yourself to be a software engineer, that seems like a separate problem. I went through something similar when getting into tech, and I started as a self-taught front end developer before moving deeper into the stack at different jobs. I remember the feeling of there being a divide between the thin layer I worked with (JavaScript, CSS, React, etc) and much of how the rest of the software, the computer, and the internet work, and the divide felt very wide.

One thing that I've found helps with this is to build your foundational CS knowledge over time. I found CS classes (via CS50 and classes for a post-baccalaureate originally) beneficial for getting an introduction to concepts and areas that I was pretty unfamiliar with, and it has definitely helped to dissipate some of the fog around unknown concepts that I wasn't getting exposure to through my day job. I wouldn't say it was an over night shift, but the general knowledge has helped me become more confident about software in general, and that divide is barely there these days for me.

The only downside is that the classes expose you to the true depth of complexity in many areas (e.g. an intro compilers class vs. the real life complexity of gcc); it turns out you can go as deep as you want in so many different areas. It's a little unsettling to see the depth, but it's nice to go even a little deeper than the surface.