With data from a national survey of 3800 doctoral students in departments of chemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, microbiology and physics, and data from the Survey of Doctoral Recipients/National Science Foundation, we analyze the career-preferences and prospects of young scientists. We analyze patterns by field and gender of students, and assess the extent to which the preferences and subjective (reported) prospects of doctoral students reflect the objective (actual) employment experiences of recent PhD recipients. The findings point toward the intricacy of the relationship between subjective and objective career prospects; and to the ways in which individual inclinations and conditioned `expectations' rest upon what is regarded as feasible, by gender and by field in science.