Why is electromagnet made of soft iron?

Electromagnet is a temporary magnet made of soft iron. Soft iron is magnetised by the magnetic field of a coil or solenoid.
Soft iron has high magnetic permeability due to which it gets magnetised quickly and it loses magnetic properties easily due to the fact that it has low magnetic retentivity .

Temperature doesn't change during phase change( melting, boiling etc..). Why?

The heat added to the solid is absorbed by the particles and it is utilised in overcoming the intermolecular force of attraction between the particles. So heat absorbed in solids is changed to potential energy without any change in kinetic energy of the molecules. As temperature in Kelvin scale is the measure of kinetic energy of particles, there is no change in temperature during melting.