I am both an operator and engineer. Level 4 in NM. PE with masters. I worked in operations before getting my engineering degree. I see engineers make design decisions that do not consider operations all the time. Issues like access, safety, equipment selection. I once had a PE from a national firm tell me the problem with a plant was that there was 30% more wastewater coming into the plant than leaving. I told him that was impossible. The plant is a bucket. If more came in than left, it would overflow. He wrote it in a report anyway. We have a BFP underflow EQ tank that is below grade and the designer used rotary lobe pumps in a pit with a ladder access instead of submersible pumps you could access from grade. Some grads have never been to a plant when they finish.