This paper examines the trade-off between career and family at labor market entry using unique data on job preferences among Swedish law graduates. Using ranked job applications, I document gender differences in employment and location preferences: women are less geographically mobile and less likely to pursue private-sector career paths. I focus on cohabitation status at labor market entry to investigate how early family ties may constrain preferences. Cohabiting applicants—regardless of gender—are less mobile, reflecting short-run career constraints. However, cohabitation at labor market entry does not predict long-run gender differences in earnings. Instead, career trajectories begin to diverge with the timing of parenthood, underscoring the unequal career costs of family formation.