I'll answer that for him.
It may not be the case, but were he to qualify at, say, 19, and go straight into a job, he has 4 years experience and probably over 3000h.
He also has a TR and thus would be classed as an 'experienced' new joiner, as opposed to someone who has come out of flying school or has been flying a light twin around. Thus he doesn't want to know about cadet salaries.
What do you want him to call himself? A fairly-new-fo-with-a-tr-and-some-hours-but-not-masses?
Stop nitpicking, you know exactly what he's getting at.