SCOTT CURTIS spent 25 years trading stocks on Wall Street before he lost his job in the recession.

Now he drives a yellow cab, not just to make a living, but also to find his next post: He hangs a hiring pitch in the back seat. “Three interviews so far,” he said with a grin.

At his taxi garage in the South Bronx, Mr. Curtis, 47, shares job-hunting tips with another felled financier, who drives home after shifts to Westchester County in his own car, a BMW. They wave hello to a pal, laid off from JPMorgan, who drives to help pay for her son’s European study-abroad program.

It is a long slide from the trading floor to the driver’s wheel of a taxicab, but these former bankers have adopted a bullish outlook on their new profession. They say taxi driving, with its flexible hours and all-cash wages, is an undervalued asset — and an efficient way to meet potential employers face to face.

“There are 20 million other people on Monster.com,” said Mr. Curtis, who chats up his fares in case a chief executive or headhunter has stumbled in. “I thought people would see this, and think, ‘He’ll go the extra yard to go and get a job.’ ”