Mike-
The way you phrased your question it sounds like you might not be aware that ALL standing preferences are deleted from the system every time you receive an award.
Be aware of that.

But also-
There ARE certain circumstances where a pilot would include his current category in his list of preferences. That's PhD level bidding though. I would not advise a new hire to do that until you are very confident that you are very familiar with the percentage system and all the bidding strategies available using the percentage qualifiers.

Finally-
Most guys will tell you that the iCrew capability to view pilots with preferences for certain categories can be very misleading and is almost useless. There are many reasons for that. ie=> It doesn't factor in the percentage qualifiers or whether a pilot has throwaway bids in the system as his first three choices, etc. etc. etc.

Bid what you want and want what you bid. You will only end up screwing yourself if you try to bid based on the numbers from that page in iCrew.