Turning Theory Into Practice: How MSPs Can Ramp Up New Techs

Hiring your first “green” tech feels like a gamble. They’ve never worked in the industry, they’re full of theory, and your gut says it’ll be months before they’re profitable. But here’s the thing: you can turn book knowledge into practical skill if you set expectations, structure their time, and build a repeatable system.

I’ve been on both sides. When I ran my MSP, we once hired a kid straight out of a tech college program. He could talk about DHCP in depth but had no clue DHCP reservations existed. I wasn’t about to throw him straight onto the helpdesk: our Tier 2 guys already hated answering the phone. So I had him shadow onsite techs, thinking he’d “soak it up.” Spoiler: shadowing alone isn’t enough.

Here’s what actually works.

Define Success Early

If you don’t define what “good” looks like, you’ll wake up six months later wondering why your new hire still can’t reset a password without supervision.

We started using a 30/60/90-day goal sheet. Example:

• 30 Days: Can log tickets correctly, reset passwords, and image PCs.

• 60 Days: Can handle 5–10 “low risk” tickets per week under review.

• 90 Days: Can take client calls (with backup on standby).

It sounds obvious, but we used to say things like, “Yeah, we’ll just see how he does.” That’s not a plan.. that’s chaos. Define targets and track progress against them.

Structure the Day

The worst onboarding plan? “Sit with Bob and watch what he does.” Bob is busy, hates explaining things twice, and you’re burning billable time.

What worked better for us was a 60/40 split:

• 60%: Client-relevant work (shadowing, prepping laptops, handling supervised tickets).

• 40%: Training time (lab work, documentation, reading playbooks).

We treated every hour as accountable. Even non-billable hours had an outcome: “Document the password reset process” or “Set up a DHCP scope in the lab.” If you let a new hire drift, they’ll drift.

Build a Learning Path

Early on, I made the mistake of dumping a pile of Pluralsight courses on a junior and saying, “Go learn networking.” Weeks later, he could explain OSPF in theory but still struggled to set up a basic firewall rule.

What worked instead was task-based progression.

We built a checklist:

1. Image a machine

2. Add a user to O365

3. Install the RMM agent

4. Handle a print spooler restart

5. Update documentation for the process

Each win built confidence and added immediate value. Shadowing went from “sit there quietly” to “document what you just saw.”

Hands-On Lab

A lab environment was a game-changer. I gave a junior some old Dell servers, a SonicWall, and told him to build a fake client network: DHCP, AD, VPN, VLANs, the works.

Was it messy? Absolutely. Did he blow up the lab? Multiple times. But here’s the beauty: he broke it where it was safe, not in production.

Every week we gave a new challenge: “Set up Azure AD sync,” “Document a VPN config,” “Recover from a botched backup.” It turned theory into muscle memory.

Don’t Forget Soft Skills

This is where a lot of MSPs drop the ball. We train them to reboot print spoolers but forget to teach them how to talk to a client without sounding like a robot.

One hire I had was technically solid but terrified of the phone. When he did answer, he sounded like he was apologizing for existing. Clients hated it. We started role-playing calls:

• How do you tell a client “turn it off and on again” without sounding condescending?

• How do you handle an angry CFO yelling about email being down?

Those sessions felt awkward at first, but they paid off. Within months, he went from deer-in-headlights to “calm, professional, and in control.”

Review and Feedback Loops

Weekly check-ins saved us. We sat down and asked:

• What tasks did you complete?

• Where did you get stuck?

• What do you want more practice on?

One junior admitted, “I’m terrified of touching AD.” Perfect, that’s where we put extra lab time.

We also set monthly hard stops. At month three, if someone wasn’t handling at least basic tickets with supervision, we had to ask: is this a fit, or are we dragging it out?

Build a Repeatable System

The first time we onboarded a junior, we made it up as we went. It was inefficient, and our Tier 2s grumbled about being babysitters.

So we started recording training sessions, documenting the learning path, and creating a repeatable system. By the third hire, onboarding was smoother, faster, and less painful.

That’s the real win: not just training this new hire, but building a system you can use again and again.