Background: Parents strongly influence career decisions, especially in collectivistic societies such as India. When involvement becomes pressure, control, or substitution of the young person's choices, it is termed parental career intrusion. Its consequences for adult workplace fulfilment are theorised widely but rarely measured directly.

Objective: To synthesise theory and empirical evidence on how parental career intrusion relates to career development and workplace fulfilment, and to appraise the strength and limits of that evidence.

Method: A narrative review based on a targeted search (December 2025) of meta-analyses and primary studies on parenting, career decision-making, person-environment fit, and career regret. Effect sizes were extracted as reported by the original authors and re-expressed as shared variance (r²).

Results: Meta-analytic correlations between parenting and youth outcomes cluster between r = .20 and r = .33. Autonomy-supportive parenting relates positively to well-being (r = .30), psychological control relates to ill-being (r = .26), and parental variables relate to career decision-making self-efficacy at r = .26 to .31. Person-job fit relates strongly to job satisfaction (r ≈ .56). Indian medical-student data show 16.2% citing parental pressure as a reason for entry and 32.0% regretting their choice. Evidence on parental interference is not fully consistent.

Conclusions: The evidence supports a plausible, modest, multi-pathway link between intrusion and reduced fulfilment, but direct adult-workplace evidence is thin. Guidance that widens choices appears beneficial, whereas control appears costly. Longitudinal and India-focused studies are needed.