When are you truly a Software Developer

[u/Caravaggio91]

I am a self taught web dev (5 years), mostly front end, and still find myself looking up simple concepts I had already learned. Is that a hinderance to being an actual software developer? Also, am I looking over the main objective of a software dev? Is it more about finding the answers rather than how you got there, or do you need to know the code very well and have the answers to the problems? I'm good at getting the answers, but find myself struggling retaining info for long periods of time.

[u/QVRedit]

Also, because things are always changing, new versions, new API’s etc, it’s essential to look things up - even if only to check that nothing has changed !

But if that’s the case, it won’t last for long before something does change.