4 ms·

What I'd like to know is how to move there with 0 experience and without knowing anyone who lives there.

easytiger 12y ago
A suprisingly common question on r/london
jarmitage 12y ago
Unless you're extremely enterprising and know you can meet people quickly, the general advice is don't. This sounds negative, but framing it the opposite way has worked for me and many of my friends: visit London first to make some contacts, then move here once you've got a job offer.
alexbilbie 12y ago
I moved to London a year ago and only knew about 3 people here at the time. One of things that threw me initially the most (having moved from Lincoln) was that everyone here seems to plan everything way in advance, I missed the spontaneity of my former social life. Anyway to make some friends I went to a few different meetup nights for technologies I was interested in. I joined an online dating site to try and make some friends; I had mixed results with this but it has resulted in some great friendships. I also made friends through colleagues and friends of friends. A year later I have about 10 close friends who I see regularly, plus colleagues and other people who I see semi-regularly and I do feel like I've gone a lot social spontaneity in my life again. All in all it was a bit lonely at first but I'm loving living here and really can't imagine wanting to leave any time soon.
k-mcgrady 12y ago
I'm planning on doing exactly that in London in a few months. I've done it once before (although in Toronto - which is much further away from me). As a freelancer I was able to scrape by in Toronto and I plan on doing the same in London until I can find a job. I've had offers in the past from companies in London so hopefully it won't be too hard to find something. As for meeting people I'm planning on sharing a flat with strangers. In Toronto I got a 1 bedroom apartment and it was the worst decision I made. I feel like if I'm living with 3 or 4 other people (at least for the first little while) I have a much better chance of meeting people and assembling a group of friends.

A suprisingly common question on r/london

Unless you're extremely enterprising and know you can meet people quickly, the general advice is don't. This sounds negative, but framing it the opposite way has worked for me and many of my friends: visit London first to make some contacts, then move here once you've got a job offer.

alexbilbie 12y ago

I moved to London a year ago and only knew about 3 people here at the time. One of things that threw me initially the most (having moved from Lincoln) was that everyone here seems to plan everything way in advance, I missed the spontaneity of my former social life. Anyway to make some friends I went to a few different meetup nights for technologies I was interested in. I joined an online dating site to try and make some friends; I had mixed results with this but it has resulted in some great friendships. I also made friends through colleagues and friends of friends. A year later I have about 10 close friends who I see regularly, plus colleagues and other people who I see semi-regularly and I do feel like I've gone a lot social spontaneity in my life again. All in all it was a bit lonely at first but I'm loving living here and really can't imagine wanting to leave any time soon.

k-mcgrady 12y ago

I'm planning on doing exactly that in London in a few months. I've done it once before (although in Toronto - which is much further away from me). As a freelancer I was able to scrape by in Toronto and I plan on doing the same in London until I can find a job. I've had offers in the past from companies in London so hopefully it won't be too hard to find something. As for meeting people I'm planning on sharing a flat with strangers. In Toronto I got a 1 bedroom apartment and it was the worst decision I made. I feel like if I'm living with 3 or 4 other people (at least for the first little while) I have a much better chance of meeting people and assembling a group of friends.