Within any given professional domain a worker generally attains a certain level of expertise. However, few workers actually become recognized experts within their chosen profession. Using a metasynthesis approach this study focused on the behavioral differences between a novice and an expert in an attempt to better understand the primary learning mechanisms that affect the novice to expert transition process. A review of the historical literature found three generations of theory on the dimensions of the novice to expert transition process along with describing certain characteristic behaviors. By reviewing and combining the data from twenty-two previously published research studies, this metasynthesis study finds that making the transition from novice to expert requires much more than simply showing up for work every day and spending many years on the job. Instead, experts display certain common characteristics and educators must focus their teaching methods to help novices acquire these characteristics thereby reducing the amount of time it takes for a novice to become an expert. With this better understanding educators and instructional designers should be better able to create instructional interventions that will shorten the time required for a novice to become an expert.