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Your question is a bit unclear (see @Wrzlprmft's comment) and I hope to resolve the confusion. Practically doing a habilitation is very similar to a PhD in Germany. You are hired by a professor and conduct/manage research projects (and you often have the duty to teach).

The difference is you are expected to work very autonomously, acquire funding as PI, supervise PhD students and develop your own research ideas. The Professor/University more or less borrow you infrastructure (offices/devices).

The implication is, if you have managed to write and defend a habilitation thesis after some years, you are over-qualified for much more jobs in comparison to "only" having a PhD.

Giving a general answer, how this pays off in industry/academia depends more on the current demand in your field of research. But it's crucial to anticipate that if you don't get tenure as a professor with habilitation (and there is a high likelihood it distinct branches), there are nearly no other positions in the german academic system, where you habilitation is an advantage (rather disadvantage) and in industry you are then seen as someone who wants to develop his own ideas, manage projects, be autonomous and is maybe hard to integrate in a bigger team as small wheel number #.

The questions here is not to ask what is the hypothetical virtual better pay-off. The question is which kind of person you are. Many people are just not suited to lead, supervise and manage teams (under strong competition) and even when attaining such a position will not be successfully in it long-term. If you are only looking for the bigger pay off and you are an autonomous person, industry is anyway the way to go (at least in Germany where professors cannot have a salary of several hundred thousand's)

Your question is a bit unclear (see @Wrzlprmft's comment) and I hope to resolve the confusion. Practically doing a habilitation is very similar to a PhD in Germany. You are hired by a professor and conduct/manage research projects (and you often have the duty to teach).

The difference is you are expected to work very autonomously, acquire funding as PI, supervise PhD students and develop your own research ideas. The professor/university more or less borrow you infrastructure (offices/devices).

The implication is, if you have managed to write and defend a habilitation thesis after some years, you are over-qualified for much more jobs in comparison to "only" having a PhD.

Giving a general answer, how this pays off in industry/academia depends more on the current demand in your field of research. But it's crucial to anticipate that if you don't get tenure as a professor with habilitation (and there is a high likelihood it distinct branches), there are nearly no other positions in the German academic system where your habilitation is an advantage (rather disadvantage). In industry you are then seen as someone who wants to develop his own ideas, manage projects, be autonomous and is maybe hard to integrate in a bigger team as small wheel number #.

The questions here is not to ask what is the hypothetical virtual better pay-off. The question is which kind of person you are. Many people are just not suited to lead, supervise and manage teams (under strong competition) and even when attaining such a position will not be successfully in it long-term. If you are only looking for the bigger pay off and you are an autonomous person, industry is anyway the way to go (at least in Germany where professors cannot have a salary of several hundred thousands)

Your question is a bit unclear (see @Wrzlprmft's comment) and I hope to resolve the confusion. Practically doing a habilitation is very similar to a PhD in Germany. You are hired by a professor and conduct/manage research projects (and you often have the duty to teach).

The difference is you are expected to work very autonomously, acquire funding as PI, supervise PhD students and develop your own research ideas. The Professor/University more or less borrow you infrastructure (offices/devices).

The implication is, if you have managed to write and defend a habilitation thesis after some years, you are over-qualified for much more jobs in comparison to "only" having a PhD.

Giving a general answer, how this pays off in industry/academia depends more on the current demand in your field of research. But it's crucial to anticipate that if you don't get tenure as a professor with habilitation (and there is a high likelihood it distinct branches), there are nearly no other positions in the german academic system, where you habilitation is an advantage (rather disadvantage) and in industry you are then seen as someone who wants to develop his own ideas, manage projects, be autonomous and is maybe hard to integrate in a bigger team as small wheel number #.

The questions here is not to ask what is the hypothetical virtual better pay-off. The question is which kind of person you are. Many people are just not suited to lead, supervise and manage teams (under strong competition) and even when attaining such a position will not be successfully in it long-term. If you are only looking for the bigger pay off and you are an autonomous person, industry is anyway the way to go (at least in Germany where professors cannot have a salary of several hundred thousand's)

Your question is a bit unclear (see @Wrzlprmft's comment) and I hope to resolve the confusion. Practically doing a habilitation is very similar to a PhD in Germany. You are hired by a professor and conduct/manage research projects (and you often have the duty to teach).

The difference is you are expected to work very autonomously, acquire funding as PI, supervise PhD students and develop your own research ideas. The Professor/University more or less borrow you infrastructure (offices/devices).

The implication is, if you have managed to write and defend a habilitation thesis after some years, you are over-qualified for much more jobs in comparison to "only" having a PhD.

Giving a general answer, how this pays off in industry/academia depends more on the current demand in your field of research. But it's crucial to anticipate that if you don't get tenure as a professor with habilitation (and there is a high likelihood it distinct branches), there are nearly no other positions in the german academic system, where you habilitation is an advantage (rather disadvantage) and in industry you are then seen as someone who wants to develop his own ideas, manage projects, be autonomous and is maybe hard to integrate in a bigger team as small wheel number #.

The questions here is not to ask what is the hypothetical virtual better pay-off. The question is which kind of person you are. Many people are just not suited to lead, supervise and manage teams (under strong competition) and even when attaining such a position will not be successfully in it long-term. If you are only looking for the bigger pay off and you are an autonomous person, industry is anyway the way to go (at least in Germany where professors cannot have a salary of several hundred thousand's)

Your question is a bit unclear (see @Wrzlprmft's comment) and I hope to resolve the confusion. Practically doing a habilitation is very similar to a PhD in Germany. You are hired by a professor and conduct/manage research projects (and you often have the duty to teach).

The difference is you are expected to work very autonomously, acquire funding as PI, supervise PhD students and develop your own research ideas. The Professor/University more or less borrow you infrastructure (offices/devices).

The implication is, if you have managed to write and defend a habilitation thesis after some years, you are over-qualified for much more jobs in comparison to "only" having a PhD.

Giving a general answer, how this pays off in industry/academia depends more on the current demand in your field of research. But it's crucial to anticipate that if you don't get tenure as a professor with habilitation (and there is a high likelihood it distinct branches), there are nearly no other positions in the german academic system, where you habilitation is an advantage (rather disadvantage) and in industry you are then seen as someone who wants to develop his own ideas, manage projects, be autonomous and is maybe hard to integrate in a bigger team as small wheel number #.

The questions here is not to ask what is the hypothetical virtual better pay-off. The question is which kind of person you are. Many people are just not suited to lead, supervise and manage teams (under strong competition) and even when attaining such a position will not be successfully in it long-term. If you are only looking for the bigger pay off and you are an autonomous person, industry is anyway the way to go (at least in Germany where professors cannot have a salary of several hundred thousand's)

Your question is a bit unclear (see @Wrzlprmft's comment) and I hope to resolve the confusion. Practically doing a habilitation is very similar to a PhD in Germany. You are hired by a professor and conduct/manage research projects (and you often have the duty to teach).

The difference is you are expected to work very autonomously, acquire funding as PI, supervise PhD students and develop your own research ideas. The Professor/University more or less borrow you infrastructure (offices/devices).

The implication is, if you have managed to write and defend a habilitation thesis after some years, you are over-qualified for much more jobs in comparison to "only" having a PhD.

Giving a general answer, how this pays off in industry/academia depends more on the current demand in your field of research. But it's crucial to anticipate that if you don't get tenure as a professor with habilitation (and there is a high likelihood it distinct branches), there are nearly no other positions in the german academic system, where you habilitation is an advantage (rather disadvantage) and in industry you are then seen as someone who wants to develop his own ideas, manage projects, be autonomous and is maybe hard to integrate in a bigger team as small wheel number #.

The questions here is not to ask what is the hypothetical virtual better pay-off. The question is which kind of person you are. Many people are just not suited to lead, supervise and manage teams (under strong competition) and even when attaining such a position will not be successfully in it long-term. If you are only looking for the bigger pay off and you are an autonomous person, industry is anyway the way to go (at least in Germany where professors cannot have a salary of several hundred thousand's)