By MARVIN WALBERG, Scripps Howard News Service

Volumes have been written about the job interview.

Pre-interview research and preparation.

Proper interview dress.

Promptness -- arrival time.

Body language and interview protocol.

Answers to questions and questions to ask.

Thank you notes and follow through.

How is this for positive news -- all this week, newspapers were reporting things like:

Recession over?

Recovery in progress, some say.

I couldn't believe my eyes! Good news for a change, but then in the next breath, the stories continued with lines like:

Unemployment rate higher than the Great Depression.

You've heard this many times in this column

"Job searching is selling --

YOU are the product, and

YOU are the salesperson!"

In tough times, sales managers have meetings and you often hear the following:

Make more sales calls -- make more presentations!

Work harder and longer!

Sell harder and close faster!

Offer incentives to buy now!

Duncan Mathison, executive career consultant and former vice president of Drake Beam Morin, and Martha I.

Procrastinate, according to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, is "to put off intentionally and habitually the doing of something that should be done."

A recent New York Times front-page article reported that in July job seekers outnumbered available jobs 6-1 and that there were 2.4 million official job openings but 14.5 million people looking for work.

I enjoy Facebook.com. It's a very convenient way to stay in touch with my children who are in three states, and to share ideas, opinions, photos and news with friends. Because of Facebook, I have reconnected with college and high-school friends I haven't seen in many years. I also use Twitter from time to time, and I'm not sure how I would get along without e-mail.

For those of you who read this column regularly, I apologize for repeating some thoughts over and over again, but that's how many people learn.

A few weeks ago we were getting ready to drive my daughter back to college. As we were getting into the car, a neighbor passed by walking his dog.

This neighbor is a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and when he learned that my daughter was returning to college for her second year, he got excited.

I was having breakfast the other day, and staring me in the face was my wife's Woman's World magazine and the headline: "Get a great job -- even in this economy!"

How could I not pass this information on to you? Here goes ...