How do you deal with loneliness when you have moved to a new city for work?

The uncomfortable truth is that adult friendship needs repeated unplanned contact, which cities and remote work have largely removed. What tends to work is choosing recurring activities over one-off events — a weekly class, a running group, a regular badminton slot — because familiarity forms across repetitions rather than in a single evening. Expect it to take months, not weeks, and expect to feel awkward for the first several sessions. Keeping existing friendships alive with scheduled calls matters too, since new local connections take time to reach any depth.