NEW YORK — A few days after the attacks on the World Trade Center claimed 35 of his onetime co-workers, Dave Hyun called his former boss and asked if there was anything he could do to help.

        “Come back” was the reply.

        Mr. Hyun did just that, quitting his job at a mutual funds firm to rejoin stricken Fred Alger Management Inc., a company he left 16 months ago.

        “It was just a natural decision,” Mr. Hyun said. “It was just a reaction that this was the right thing to do.”

        Variations of Mr. Hyun's story are echoing throughout Manhattan's shaken financial community these days.

        As his past-and-present company and others decimated by the attack struggle to rebuild, they've begun the painful but essential task of hiring employees to take over for those lost in the destruction.

        But many are relying less on classified ads and recruitment firms than on personal ties, drawing on the ranks of company alumni and retirees, people who come recommended by clients and competitors, and in some cases by drawing on the ranks of those who offered assistance.

        The hiring efforts are being aided by widespread layoffs at such major Wall Street firms as Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.

        “Among all this tragedy,” said Tom Michaud, vice chairman of Keefe Bruyette & Woods, “if there's any silver lining, it is that there's a lot of very good quality talent that's being displaced at the moment.”

        That's a mixed blessing because it has also swamped some devastated firms in a tide of resumes.

        Many of the companies hit hardest by the attacks have already replaced lost senior executives and are making progress in rebuilding their ranks.

        At Alger, the company has offered jobs to six former employees in recent weeks, bringing three into top positions. They include Mr. Hyun, who took his first job out of college with Alger in 1990 but left last year for an opening at OppenheimerFunds. He's returned as portfolio manag er.

        EuroBrokers Inc., missing 60 of the 300 people who staffed its World Trade Center offices, has hired 10 new employees in the past few weeks. It is relying heavily on referrals from clients, current employees and industry contacts.

        “We lost 60 individuals that we can never replace,” said Gil Scharf, the company's chairman and CEO. “But we have been able to find some very talented people who have made a contribution as soon as they've joined us.”

        Companies including Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 700 employees; Fiduciary Trust International, with 87 dead or missing; and Keefe Bruyette & Woods, which lost 67, say they've been aided by former employees who have come out of retirement to pitch in.

        At Sandler O'Neill & Partners, which lost 66 employees in the attacks, a small group of executives spends one to three hours each day interviewing candidates and reviewing resumes. Nearly all 11 people they've hired so far have been recommended by others in the trade.

        The new additions also include Troy Farlow, who lost his consulting job this past spring in layoffs at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in sub urban Washington, D.C. Mr. Farlow read an article about Sandler soon after the attacks, caught a bus to New York to volunteer his help and was put to work answering phones, making copies and running errands. After four weeks, the company offered him a job.

        “They basically said we'd like to have you on board and I accepted it in two seconds,” Mr. Farlow said.

        “I'd call it a battlefield promotion,” said Fred Price, Mr. Sandler's chief operating officer.

        Bringing in new employees has not always gone so smoothly. Many of the people who fled the Twin Towers spent the first few weeks consoling one another, searching for and setting up temporary quarters and trying to piece together some semblance of a working business.

        Several executives said they are wary of bringing in new employees too quickly, lest they make hasty decisions.

        “While there's a sense of urgency to fill slots, we still take a lot of care to make sure we find the right person,” said Keefe Bruyette & Woods' Mr. Michaud. His company has hired 15 people.

        Other executives say they are reluctant to discuss hiring too openly, for fear of antagonizing families and co-workers of those killed.

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