An applicant asked whether, since copying duties from the official NOC descriptions is forbidden, they could copy duty text from job sites like Indeed instead. The group's answer: no — the rule is about copying itself, not about which site you copy from.
- Paraphrase from your real work, not from any website. The strongest answer: write roles and responsibilities 'based on ideas and your actual work.' Copied text — from the NOC pages or from job boards — reads as templated and undermines the letter's credibility.
- Aim for substantial overlap in substance. Members quoted two working thresholds: one said if a NOC lists 10 duties, your letter should genuinely reflect 7 or more (~70%); another cited ESDC guidance that duties must cover at least 50% of the NOC-specific work profile. Either way: majority overlap in meaning, zero overlap in wording.
- Duties outweigh the job title. Asked whether the title or the duties matter, the thread's clear position was that the duty descriptions are what officers match against the NOC — a mismatched title with matching duties beats the reverse.
- Write it, then map it. Practical workflow implied by the thread: list what you actually did, then check the mapping against the NOC's lead statement and duty list, rewording until the substance aligns.