Are you interested in being employed in the consulting industry? Do you want to work for an employment agency? I will teach you how to be a successful temp.

The first thing you must do is develop marketable job skills. Many employment agencies want you to be highly proficient with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and keyboard typing. You can acquire these skills through practice, books and online tutorials.

Make a telephone call to the employment agencies you are registered with at least once a week. It is important to do this to let them know you are still looking for an assignment.

Do not call your agencies to update your availability twice in the same day. This could lead to your termination.

Make a trip to the site of an assignment you have accepted before the day you are scheduled to start. Many offices are hard to find and you will be late if it takes too long to find the company.

Keep an open mind toward doing light industrial assignments when you register with a temp agency. I am paying the price for not making myself available for assignments that involve a lot of physical work when I registered with a particular temp agency in 2000. After making my usual weekly telephone call to the agency last year, I was told, "You've been registered with us for five years and I don't think we are going to be able to find anything for you. You just don't have the skills or experience we're looking for." The recruiter would not clarify the skills they want but I am assuming they were not impressed with the weak computer skills I had when I registered.

Sign your time card and time sheet at the beginning and end of each day you are doing an assignment. It is important to call your agency when your assignment has ended to let them know you want to do more assignments.

Take whatever assignment is offered as long as you can reach the location of the assignment and get there on time. In January 2006, I was offered a call center assignment by one of my temp agencies. The scheduled starting time was 7:00 in the morning. I did not accept the assignment because I am a bus rider and I would have been required to get up very early. I thought I would be unproductive as a result of not getting enough sleep. My refusal upset the lady who hired me. "You turned down an assignment because of the hours," she said when I called a few months later to see if any assignments were available. I replied, "I have also done an assignment." She answered, "Right. I got that. I don't have any data entry work available." I replied, "Do you have any clerical work available?" She answered, "I don't have anything, okay?" She hung up.

I now do an occasional assignment that requires to me to be there at 7:00 in the morning. I must pay my rent and remain eligible for assignments.

Ask for a policy handbook when you register with temp agencies. If you ride the bus, look at your bus schedules and bus route maps when you are called to do an assignment.

Job interview questions are notoriously deceptive in most cases. What you may think to be an innocent question that is probing for some deeper insight into your career could actually be a hidden trap for testing your nerve.

The question "What was the worst part about your last job and why are you leaving there?" is indeed one of these trapping trick questions .

The real reason you're asked this is to see how well you hold your calm...how well you speak of others behind their back and how professional you appear in your overall attitude towards such negative aspects of your work.

But don't worry, because there are a few ways to get around this tricky question...

Here are some examples:

"I hated having to fire people. I knew it was an important part of business growth, but hated the feeling of doing it"

"Having to maintain discipline, sometimes quite firmly to maintain a smooth running and professional work environment. I like to see people enjoy their work environment, but I appreciate there is a balance that needs to be maintained"

"My current job is great, but I do find the long commute difficult in terms of cost and in terms of draining my energy which could be better applied for the day at work ahead"

Not only do these examples avoid making you look aggressive, negative or unmotivated...but also put a positive spin on a negative aspect that you were unhappy with.

This will also reassure your potential future employer that you aren't going to bad mouth them, or see potentially negative aspects of a new job as a trigger for wanting to leave.