6 Reasons This Is the Perfect Thank-You Email to Send After a Job Interview When you don't send a thank you email or letter after an interview, you often eliminate yourself from the competition.

You spend weeks preparing for a job interview and give 110 percent once you're in the hot seat. You walk out feeling confident and relieved -- like your work is finally done.

But it isn't.

In fact, there's still one more crucial step to take if you really want to land the gig: sending the interview thank you email.

"The best timeframe to send a thank you email is within 24 hours after your interview," says Whitney Purcell, associate director of career development at Susquehanna University. "It should be sent during business hours -- no 3 a.m. emails that make your schedule seem a little out of whack with the company's traditional hours."

While the interview thank you email doesn't require too much heavy lifting, a simple, "Thanks for your time!" won't do. You need to really "wow" the hiring manager and make a great final impression before they make a decision about you.

Your follow-up thank you email (yes, experts say most hiring managers prefer email over hand-written notes) needs to stand out from the crowd. It should highlight the best parts of the conversation you had with the interviewer, and a final reminder as to why you'd be perfect for the job.

Dr. Deborah Good, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business, says the following email template is an ideal way to follow up because it possesses six important traits:

Hope Restle contributed to a previous version of this article.