I had a number of classmates start work in NYC after graduation at the same time, it is an easy in-group if you have any available.

I’ve also made friends through my local hangouts ie my go-to coffeeshop and bar and through my hobbies ie yoga, softball, and ceramics. I follow a decently successful formula:

The trick is to find places that you vibe with or activities you enjoy and can hang out at on a consistent basis. These places/activities should be others peoples downtime rather than their jobs, which may obligate them to be friendly when they just want to collect a paycheck. Once you’ve establish yourself as regular, people will recognize you as 1) a friendly face, and 2) someone worth investing time/effort.

From there, you can open with a compliment and question either regarding the common activity (“I love glaze combo on that mug! Is it your own mixture?”) or regarding something about their own person that the clearly take pride in, like their outfit/makeup/hair/style/book that they’re reading and ask for recommendations.

Obviously this is easier to navigate as a woman speaking to another woman, but generally I find most men are surprised albeit very receptive to compliments since they’re less likely to have peers give them regularly. If people react poorly, take heed and just disregard them, no skin off your back. If people take it as romantic/sexual interest and you’re not interested, laugh it off as if they’re joking.