Question: I’m speaking today with a sociologist. You’re a doctoral candidate and, as you mentioned, currently in the midst of your research. What is the topic of your research?
Answer: I am studying the career trajectories of young people in the labor market. For this, I quantitatively analyze anonymized data regarding individuals’ income and employment situations.

Question: Ah, and you mentioned that you are not collecting your own data but are reusing data from the Dutch Statistical Institute. What exactly does this data reuse look like?
Answer: That’s right. I have a contract with the statistical institute and use the data via a VPN. To access the data, I log into the institute’s server using two-factor authentication. I need three different passwords in total. First, I receive a code through a password-protected app to log into the server. Then, I enter my personalized password. On the server, I have to log into another system where I can access the data. So, I have a primary and a secondary account, and I can only use my data in the secondary account.

Question: Ah, that sounds quite complex. What has your experience with data reuse been like? How do you feel about it?
Answer: Generally, the data usage works well, and I’m very happy to be able to use such detailed data for my doctoral research. Nevertheless, there are frequent technical issues when logging into the secondary account. To resolve these, I have to call the institute’s IT department each time, and it can take one to two days for them to identify and fix the problem, which can be quite frustrating.

Question: Yes, I can fully understand that. Would you also like to reuse data in future projects?
Answer: Yes, absolutely. Despite the minor hurdles, I would definitely like to work with the same data again in future projects.

Question: Thank you for these insights.
Answer: Thank you for the conversation.