The other day I attended the live webcast "Cram for Exams! 70-536: Visual Studio 2008." During the webcast the presenter put up a poll and I was a bit surprised at the results. Are you?

Poll: Which language will you choose when taking the exam (Exam 70-536: Visual Studio 2008)?

Screen shot from the live webcast (click to enlarge):

I was rather surprised to see that of approximately 650 participants, 75% choose C#! I knew that VB was on the downward slide, but to see such a huge disparity was news to me. Perhaps the C# crowd is younger than the VB crowd and see the certification as an opportunity for a better paying job? While the VB crowd is more mature in their careers and do not see the need for a certification? My guess is there is some truth in both of those statements.

Why Certify?

For me, certification is an opportunity to push myself to continue my education. The exam covers areas that I am not familiar with and forces me to learn the topics. This, in theory, should make me a better all-around developer. In practice… who knows?

Cram for Exams! 70-536: Visual Studio 2008 On-Demand Broadcast

As of this writing, the webcast has yet to be published for on-demand broadcast. For that matter, none of the June 2008 webcasts are available yet. Howerver, when they are available in July of 2008, they'll be at the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/library/200806.mspx

For the archived webcasts by month: http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/library/default.mspx

Enjoy!