In this expository article some spectral properties of self‐adjoint differential operators are investigated. The main objective is to illustrate and (partly) review how one can construct domains or potentials such that the essential or discrete spectrum of a Schrödinger operator of a certain type (e.g. the Neumann Laplacian) coincides with a predefined subset of the real line. Another aim is to emphasize that the spectrum of a differential operator on a bounded domain or bounded interval is not necessarily discrete, that is, eigenvalues of infinite multiplicity, continuous spectrum, and eigenvalues embedded in the continuous spectrum may be present. This unusual spectral effect is, very roughly speaking, caused by (at least) one of the following three reasons: The bounded domain has a rough boundary, the potential is singular, or the boundary condition is nonstandard. In three separate explicit constructions we demonstrate how each of these possibilities leads to a Schrödinger operator with prescribed essential spectrum.