About

Hi, my name is Simon Davies.
Before I became qualified and began providing career change advice, I had my own career and life search moment.

I was sitting in my first floor office in Christchurch, when I had a life changing moment

I had worked in a number of jobs and then at the age of twenty-three I started my own business; a two-store video rental business that I owned for seven years.

This was in the early 1980s just when videos were getting going and the business became quite successful.

Coming from a family that never had much money (six kids), I now found myself with more money than I knew what to do with.

Although being self-employed was my most enjoyable role up to that point, I had become unfulfilled and a bit frustrated at work and in life.

What Did I Want to Achieve In Life

I began to think long and hard about what it was that I really wanted to achieve in my life.

Success in business had allowed me to obtain many of the material things that an average 28 year old would want, including a freehold house and money to spend on my expensive hobby (motorsport).

Then one day in May 1990, I was sitting in my first-floor office in Colombo St, when I had a life-changing moment.



I had just completed a review of an SMI goal-setting program when I began to realize that I had now achieved many of the relatively ambitious goals that I had set.

Most of my goals related to growing my business, getting more money and material possessions, and motorsport achievements.
But as I reviewed my goals I felt something wasn’t quite right.

My Turning Point

As I thought about what I had achieved, I began to become increasingly frustrated.

The frustration grew and grew to a point where I began to ask the question

What is success in life all about?

I soon realized that any number of these goals on their own was not going to bring me the fulfillment I was looking for.


I was now aged 30 and I was in the early stages of a total paradigm shift in my philosophy towards success in work and life.

I felt I had wasted a lot of years chasing things that I thought would bring greater satisfaction than they actually did.

This was not to say that I hadn’t enjoyed these things, having money and the things it could buy and the choices it can offer.

It’s just that I thought they would bring me the level of happiness and contentment I was looking for, but they had failed to deliver.

I never thought to have these things was bad, to the contrary, they had provided opportunities and experiences that I would not otherwise have had. But for me, the pursuit of them held promises of a level of fulfilment that didn’t happen.


Over the following weeks and months, I pondered about:

• What is it in life that I really wanted to achieve?
• What one thing, when I get to the end of my days on earth, I will be able to say with absolute conviction:
  “I’m glad I dedicated my life to doing that”.

Around this time, another significant event occurred – the death of my father.

Some Good In The Bad

After his death, I was having a discussion with one of his friends when he uttered what he would probably regard as a throw-away comment.

But it was a comment that stuck in my mind and has impacted my life since.

I knew that what he said was true about my father, but I also felt that it was true of me.

I started on a journey that helped me confirm that one of my desires was to help others reach their maximum potential.

This same journey also caused me to think about the spiritual aspects of my life and how God and work might be linked.

It also began a journey in me of wanting to know more about God.


A short time later I began an eighteen-month self-study program on how to find your optimal job.

This was followed by setting up a business that taught this material to groups and individuals.

I then completed my qualifications in career guidance, a Diploma in Career Counseling and Certificate in Vocational Assessment in New Zealand.


For more than a decade I have been career consulting, helping people with their job search and self-marketing in New Zealand and Australia.

I have worked with individuals, groups and corporate clients including New Zealand’s largest company (at the time).

If you would like to find out more about my services, please see my career services or resume services pages.

Simon Davies Career Consultant

Career Change Advice Specialist

Diploma in Career Counseling | Certificate in Vocational Assessment
Past professional member of Career Development Association of New Zealand (Formerly Career Practitioners Association of New Zealand)