“What do you want and what are you willing to do to get it” – Them saying that if I want to own a house I need to knuckle down and work hard until I get one. More specifically that I should work two jobs and 60 hours a week until I get one 20+ years off.
“I was never out of a job because I couldn't find one” – Not the worst advice, just taking any job listing out there, but certainly not the best. This was given to me during about a 1 year span at the beginning of the pandemic because all the listings for jobs in my field in the area were for about $14/hr, which is a nice $5/hr under the state average.
“It builds character” – Hardships aren't really bad because you come out the other side a better person across the board, be it getting laid off, injured, or harassed.
“Don't be a C employee” – In reference to the Bell Curve for performance they're implying that I should strive to be an A employee at all times because It'll get me promoted and whatnot lickity split. Again, not the worst advice, but I feel like that isn't going to help in (Current Year).
“(Story about how they paid for college and bought a house by 25 by working two grocery store jobs in the 70's)” – A very cool story about how the world has changed and generally leads into the first advice, which then results in a stalled convo. Good times.
“Go in to (Place that's Hiring) ever day with your resume and a lunch box and ask when you can start” – I feel like this doesn't work any more since most places hire online, though there might be one or two places that this works on these days.
“Switch careers, I did it twice” – I could, aye, but in the current market where I need 5 years experience for entry level positions and my current lob required 7 years experience, it'd probably be counterproductive to just “restart” my career.
tl;dr boomer parent has some very interesting and boomer-y advice that they tend to give unprompted (as is tradition).