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Your job affects more than just what you do all day and how big your paycheck is. It can also influence your ability to repay your student debt.

That鈥檚 because borrowers in certain careers are especially good candidates for聽student loan refinancing. Refinancing student debt allows qualified borrowers to get lower rates and has grown in popularity in the past few years. If it鈥檚 the right move for you, refinancing can save you thousands of dollars in interest and help you become debt-free faster.

Best careers for student loan refinancing

If you鈥檙e in health care, law, business or engineering, you have a good shot at qualifying for refinancing. Those careers are very strongly represented among borrowers who refinance through Earnest, says Lian Chang, a data editor at the online student loan refinancing company. Of聽the company鈥檚 student loan refinancing clients, 44% have a professional degree, she adds.

At CommonBond, another online company that offers student loan refinancing, attorney, pharmacist, physician assistant, physician, registered nurse and physical therapist were among the most聽common occupations of borrowers who refinanced between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016, says Radhika Duggal, vice president of marketing. Teacher and project manager also made CommonBond鈥檚 list.

Why your career matters

Student loan refinance lenders typically look at three things when they underwrite potential borrowers: credit score, income and debt-to-income ratio, which is the amount of debt you owe relative to your earnings. In addition, your occupation helps lenders understand the likelihood that you鈥檒l repay your loan.

鈥淧hysicians historically pay back their loans pretty responsibly,鈥� says Jan Miller, an independent student loan consultant. 鈥淭hey get better [refinance] rates than someone else who has a different profession and the same income.鈥�

Student loan borrowers with postgraduate degrees tend to have higher incomes and higher debt loads than borrowers with bachelor鈥檚 degrees, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics.

Even if borrowers in high-paying fields have higher debt-to-income ratios or slightly lower credit scores compared with other borrowers, their job can help make up for it, Chang says.聽鈥淚f we know that [borrowers are] M.D.s and they鈥檙e currently in their residency, we know that they鈥檙e likely good for it,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e know what their trajectory tends to look like in the future.鈥�

A fancy job isn鈥檛 everything

Doctors, lawyers and pharmacists stand to save the most, on average, by refinancing their student debt, according to a聽2015 NerdWallet analysis. But you don鈥檛 need a professional degree to qualify for and benefit from refinancing.

鈥淵ou could be a teacher or a librarian and be a great candidate for refinancing,鈥� says Catherine New, senior editor at Earnest, 鈥渁s long as your track record demonstrates that you鈥檙e financially responsible.鈥� For Earnest, that includes having a history of paying your bills on time and contributing to a savings account.

Not everyone should refinance student debt. For example, hold off on refinancing federal student loans if you work for the government or a nonprofit. You鈥檙e eligible for the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, but you won鈥檛 be if you refinance. Refinancing also disqualifies federal loan borrowers from accessing income-driven repayment plans and other federal forgiveness programs. Private student debt isn鈥檛 eligible for these programs, so that debt may still be worth refinancing if you have high interest rates.

If you think refinancing is for you, whether you鈥檙e in a high-earning career or not, you鈥檒l save the most money by finding the lowest rate. Using a marketplace makes it convenient to compare rate estimates across multiple lenders. Try聽Credible, a NerdWallet partner, or聽LendKey, a refinance marketplace featuring community banks and credit unions.

Teddy Nykiel is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email:聽teddy@nerdwallet.com. Twitter:聽@teddynykiel.

This article first appeared in NerdWallet.聽