Randi Jakubowitz, 33, a career coach and human resource professional based in Chicago, was on her way to Midtown Manhattan from La Guardia Airport, when she had the opportunity to use her skill set.

After Ms. Jakubowitz had taken a work call, her fellow passenger, who couldn’t help but listen, asked if she was a recruiter. He confided in her that he was desperate to change jobs, that his dream was to be a product manager, but he didn’t know where to begin. She gave him her contact information and through email afterward, helped him perfect his résumé and suggested names of companies that might have open positions.

“I think what I helped him most with was positioning. I told him everyone wants to get into product, but here’s how he could do it,” she said.

Ms. Jakubowitz didn’t mind a stranger approaching her at all, she said. “I give him so much credit because he didn’t know me from a hole in the wall,” she said. “And of course, what goes around, comes around.”

Even poets are getting in on the action.

Lisa Ann Markuson, 31, who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, runs a company named Haiku Guys & Gals. Companies hire her or her colleagues to write spontaneous haikus for guests at events or parties. “We are essentially poetry D.J.s,” she said. “Except instead of turntables, we have typewriters.”

Last December, she realized she was missing out on an invaluable opportunity. She rode Lyft Lines constantly and often struck up conversations with other passengers; why not write them a haiku?