Mok Smallman spent 5 years with 2/1 Battalion of the Infantry Regiment soon after leaving high school in 1979. He spent 2 years in South East Asia with 1 Battalion of the Infantry Regiment training in close country operations, he also trained for 3 years with 7 Battalion of the Territorial Army. He left the military and joined the Ministry of Transport as a Traffic Officer and was based in Wellington city for 8 years.

In 1992 with the merger of the police and Ministry of Transport, Mok worked on the general duties branch, youth aid section and team policing unit.
 
In 1996 he transferred to the Royal New Zealand Police College where he was employed as a physical training instructor, firearms instructor, driving instructor and defensive tactics instructor. He spent 7 years at the Police College developing his skills before transferring to the Bay of Plenty as the district Trainer for the Bay of Plenty Police.

After 1 year in the Bay of Plenty he left the police and set up his company Staysafe Training Services and Consultancy Ltd where he developed the Staysafe workshop.

In 2005 Mok was employed by the British Foreign Commonwealth office as an international police adviser, where he spent 12 months in Iraq delivering firearms and defensive tactics training to the Iraqi police force and Iraqi security forces.

In 2006 he returned to New Zealand and is currently involved in delivering and developing training programmes with his company.