**An up-front comment**: This answer has managed to attract a fair number of downvotes, as well as several very helpful follow-up comments (which have since been moved to [chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/119168/discussion-on-answer-by-mico-how-is-european-habilitation-viewed-in-the-us)). One hypothesis offered by a commenter for why so many have chosen to cast downvotes is that my answer may be too focused on just one field (economics, which happens to be my field) while failing to explain what a habilitation is. Well, the question was *not* about what a habilitation is, was it? Instead, it was about how it's viewed in the US (and, presumably, Canada as well).

My answer to the OP's question can be stated as follows: To the extent that academic economists based in North America are even aware of the existence of this thing called "habilitation", they view it as having absolutely no relevance to them. For sure, their hiring decisions are going to be completely independent of whether or not job candidates have "habilitated" themselves. 

The bulk of my answer, then, is about providing some all-important context for *why* habilitations are viewed as such a non-factor in economics at North America. The context boils down to a recognition of the dramatic difference in the perceived value of doctoral degrees in economics earned from North American and (traditionally-oriented) continental European universities. In economics, and possibly other fields as well, earning a Ph.D. degree from a high quality North American university is seen as infinitely more valuable for one's academic job market prospects than obtaining a doctorate from a "standard" European university is. My answer attempts to explain why this is the case.


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I guess any answer to your question will depend importantly on your field of study. 

In my field -- economics -- there has traditionally been a huge difference in the perceived quality and status of a U.S. or Canadian Ph.D. degree in economics on the one hand and a (continental) European doctoral degree in economics on the other. (Aside: what matters is the thoroughness and breadth of learning and the research skills that come with the pursuit of the degree, *not* the nationality of the degree holder.) For sure, pursuing a Ph.D. in economics in the U.S. takes four or more years to achieve; obtaining a doctorate in economics from a continental European university could be done in as little as 18 months.

 - Earning a Ph.D. degree from a high-quality North American graduate program was (and largely still is) seen as *the* vehicle that opens doors toward obtain an assistant professorship at a selective university or college in the U.S. In contrast, most (all?) US universities would *never* bother considering applications from persons whose main qualification was that they had just received a doctorate in economics from a European university. 

 - This view appears be widely held in Europe as well: economics departments at universities in the German-speaking European countries (including Austria and Switzerland; sorry, I'm not familiar with the situation in Poland) will pretty much automatically waive the requirement of an habilitation for job applicants who come with a North American Ph.D. degree in hand. (Aside: If the European econ departments didn't waive this requirement, they would simply exclude themselves from the most important segment of the academic job market.)

 - Most American academic economists have never heard of -- or are, at most, barely familiar with -- the concept of a "habilitation". To the extent that they think they do know what it is, it's widely regarded as an awkward and mildlz embarrassing device by which a person enters an extended period of indentured servitude to some "big name professor", during which time the "habilitand" should develop and demonstrate serious research skills and, ideally, manage to publish a couple of well-regarded papers in top-notch journals -- all the while also having to engage in such career-irrelevant activities as sprucing up the big-name-professor's lecture notes. To the extent that a European habilitation degree has any value at all at US universities, it's the publications that (should) go along with the additional academic degree which matter, certainly not the degree itself.

 - If you're about to graduate from, say, a German university with a doctorate in economics and wish to pursue an academic career, you may be contemplating whether to (a) stay in Germany and "habilitate yourself" (pun intended) at a German university or (b) move to the U.S. or Canada for two years and work in a post-doc program at a leading academic place in North America. Judging by the choices made by people in similar positions in the past, I think it's fair to say that option (b) is the first choice for many a serious budding researcher, even if (and especially if!) their long-term goal is to be employed at a German university.

 - I mentioned earlier that the quality of a (continental) European doctoral degree in economics simply doesn't measure up to that of a U.S. or Canadian Ph.D. degree. (To make the comparison fair and relevant, let's focus on just the few dozen top degree-granting programs in both continents.) This difference in ranking has begun to erode over the last couple of decades -- but only for those European universities that have switched their approach to graduate education to mimic the U.S./Canadian model. The economics departments at these innoviative universities have, incidentally, also by and large abolished granting "habilitations". After all, the doctoral degrees they award are really meant to be the equivalent of (or, hopefully, considerably better than) the traditional doctorate/habilitation combo.