If one of your favorite holiday movies happens to be the 1994 version of “Miracle on 34th Street,” you might get a career lesson from what happened at the fictional Cole’s department store.

Kris Kringle told customers where to buy their toys, even if it meant sending them to a competitor. People at Cole’s were stunned at first, but then decided to make it a marketing campaign: If Cole’s didn’t have something the customer wanted, its staff would find it.

That’s a big risk for a store. Obviously it paid off in the movie (it’s not called “Belly Up on 34th Street” now, is it?), but many stores wouldn’t want to take that risk. They might lose customers instead of gain them.

But Cole’s was willing to try — largely because it was already struggling financially and had little to lose. In the real world, smart career moves can be made at companies like that.

Go to a struggling company and you’ll get experience you might never get elsewhere. Instead of being a flunky, you might get the chance to be an executive because all the people with top-level resumes won’t want to take the risk. You might even hold two jobs because of cutbacks.

Yes, you’ll have to work hard and your long-term prospects will be shaky, but one year of experience there might be worth five years at some ordinary company.

When many dot-coms failed, the people who were in it for the money lost. But those who were in it for the experience gained a lot— learning things they wouldn’t have if they had played it safe.

Besides, in a bad economy, lots of people who play it “safe” end up out of work as well.