Dr Bruce Tolentino shares insights on professional growth during the Mentoring Program lunch

As luck would have it, I was eating lunch on my birthday with my classmates in this year's Mentoring Program. The guest speaker that day was Dr V. Bruce J. Tolentino, IRRI's Deputy Director General (Communications and Partnerships).

During his talk, I took note of three points he had made; three pieces of advice that I think are important for me and my classmates as we embark on the road for professional improvement through mentoring.

1. Realize that along every stage of one's career, there are people who open doors of opportunity. However, once we're through the door, it's all about hard work.

2. Visibility is important. Performing well is just not enough. Catching people's attention (in a good way, of course) is  also needed as we grow professionally. 

3. Make sure that one's scientific work can be translated into something that a non-technical person, like policy-makers and end-users, can understand readily.

Three lessons to remember. They're not exactly low-lying fruits in the professional growth tree but they certainly are opportunities for improvement that we, as mentees, should work on.