I need answers please!!!

So I have my friend who joined this company X as a fresher for testing role, who's CTC is 8.5 lpa, but he wanna change after 2years and come back to SDE Role. So is it waste or you have to start from the rock bottom and call yourself a junior SDE and what about the pay? Will it change?

Tech guru's I know some of you may have faced same issues, I wanna know how this process will work out??