So you’ve completed your residency interview. Do this next.

Residency interviews can be a daunting prospect. So can the uncertainty that follows them.

What should you do after the interview? The answer will differ depending on your individual circumstances. At a recent exclusive event for AMA members, residency program directors and local physicians offered their insights on the residency interview process and what to do next. A recording of the event is available to AMA members—click to join or renew.

Here’s an overview of a few key takeaways.

Immediately after the interview, you should take a few minutes to record your initial reaction.

“Interviews, after a while, tend to blend together a little bit, even though each program is unique in its own way,” said AMA member Liz Southworth, MD, PGY-2 gynecologist at Michigan Medicine. She advises residency applicants to “quickly brainstorm” after the interview is over.

Dr. Southworth specifically recommended the National Resident Matching Program’s Prism app, which she says is “nice because it lets you rank programs as you go.”

Bukky Ajagbe Akingbola, DO, a first-year obstetrician-gynecologist at the University of Minnesota, talks about a colleague who recorded short videos of his impressions after his residency interviews.

“When it came time to rank those programs, he would have those videos as a resource to watch again,” she said. “It’s a long interview season, and it can be hard to remember how you felt about the interview you did in November and January.” Learn more about what not to do during your interactions with program directors.

If a program says it doesn’t respond to communication after the interview, don’t worry about the follow-up. If you follow up and don’t get a response, don’t read it.

“If a program says: Please do not contact us after this. We are so grateful that you interviewed with us, but we do not engage in post-interview communication – just don’t,” said Dr. Akingbola. “I know it sounds very basic, but sometimes, especially as the interview process continues, it can be hard to fight that urge. The program I matched didn’t specifically tell us not to, but they didn’t respond to the communication. … If you don’t hear anything, know that everything is probably fine.”

If you continue, don’t overdo it. It’s unlikely to make you stand out in a positive way, according to one program director.

“It almost never makes a difference [in the decision on an applicant] and I certainly don’t write it down if someone doesn’t send a thank-you note,” said Hilary Fairbrother, MD, an AMA member who is vice chair of education in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Texas at Houston. “I got a few headshots – I think that’s very strange. I understand you’re trying to be remembered, but I’m interviewing over 100 people so it’s hard to make a connection.

If necessary, Dr. Fairbrother noted, she can pull up the applicant’s photo in the eResidency service.

Find out which factors are most important to applicants when choosing residency programs.