How to find your NOC

Start with duties, not titles

Job titles are inconsistent. Two employers can call nearly identical work by very different names, and the same title can mean different things across industries. The NOC is defined by what you actually do, so the reliable approach is to list your real tasks and find the occupation whose representative duties overlap most.

Read the TEER level

Every NOC carries a TEER category from 0 to 5, reflecting the training, education, experience, and responsibilities a role typically needs. TEER 0 covers management and TEER 1 usually a university degree, with requirements easing as the number rises. Many skilled immigration streams focus on TEER 0 to 3, so your level matters as much as the code itself.

A simple method

Write down five to ten concrete duties from your role. Compare them against candidate occupations and favour the one whose core tasks you genuinely perform, not one that only shares your title. If your work straddles two codes, note both and check which fits your seniority. Our NOC Finder automates this first pass.

Common mistakes

The frequent errors are choosing a code by title alone, picking a more senior code than your duties support, and stopping at the first plausible match. Once you have a candidate, confirm it against the official National Occupational Classification before relying on it, since your NOC influences almost every program decision.