InsideLane – a tale of mutual growth

Catriona Munro • 27th Aug 2024

When it comes to internships, learning opportunities go both ways. And I believe we value the qualities and insights an intern brings just as much as the intern values their experience.

I vividly remember knocking on agency doors, eager to uncover the real world of agency life. This realistic outlook became reality when I was given a live brief for a real client. It was these experiences I valued the most – where I felt responsible and where I grasped the process.

With a bit of brainstorming and the help of drawing from personal experience, Lane carefully crafted, not just a paid internship, but an eye-opening and genuine experience for students, relaunching InsideLane this Summer.

InsideLane was designed to give design, advertising and content interns the chance to touch on a variety of creative disciplines, supplying them with relevant skills and work to strengthen their portfolio and accelerate them into the world of work. Working on projects we’ve been set, including live briefs, gave our InsideLaners the opportunity to work collaboratively, providing them with insight into other agency roles.

This collaborative way of working proved to not only benefit the InsideLaner, but it also brought fresh eyes to the creative team. A new perspective and approach to creativity was something we were excited to see unfold over each two-week placement. As the next generation of designers, I looked forward to taking their view of the world on board and feeding that into my own creativity.

Word of our internship programme spread quickly through university talks, graduate shows and social media. And it was clear that the demand for work experience is still as high as I remembered, if not higher, so opportunities like ours get snapped up quickly. The level of talent was impressive, and a thorough interview process helped us to break down a tough decision – but not without sneaking in an extra couple of interns. We just couldn’t resist!

By tailoring the internships further to individually suit each of our InsideLaners based on their portfolios, we could make use of their strengths as much as they wanted to prove them. From editorial to animation, presenting internally and coming face to face with clients, they took on the day-to-day challenges of the creative industry, leaving no stone unturned as they quickly fit right in.

But don’t just take our word for it. Hear from our InsideLaners themselves…