I am a Teaching Assistant with college like lecturer's duties so I applied. Everything is kosher in terms of my duties listed but I would understand if someone else would not believe it. I think if there was no separate NOC for TAs then it would have been okay but since there is a separate NOC for TA, it makes it hard. Also, I did not do the IELTS, no time. One of my PCC was more than 3 months old since date of issue but this one is not so bad since I hadn't been in the country for about 4 years.
On the positive note, I hadn't intend to move to Canada without a job offer anyway. While job offers are harder without a PR or citizenship, it is not too bad in my field. So if I do get a job offer then I would get PR anyway.