“Innocent, gullible, and blinded by illusions”: Honoré de Balzac on the misery of interns in 1841

“There are two types of interns: poor ones and rich ones. The poor intern has pockets full of hope and needs a permanent position; the rich intern is unmotivated and wants for nothing.”

By Philip Maughan

(Photo By Job seekers at an internship fair in New York. Photograph: Getty Images.)

I was a poor intern. In 2012 I worked for four weeks* at the New Statesman’s former offices near Blackfriars Bridge. Every day I would leave a little early and walk across the river to my evening job – serving overpriced cocktails in a theatre bar. It was exhausting. Most weeks I didn’t work Sundays – I did laundry, what joy – but some weeks I worked the afternoon matinee because I was skint and the theatre paid double time, meaning I had worked every day of the week. My friends all told me how lucky I was.

One evening in the middle of winter I was walking over Blackfriars Bridge when a black shadow flashed in front of my eyes. I looked up and saw a horrified woman looking in my direction.