New Job & Credit Check

I recently interviewed for a teller position at a bank in my hometown. They ran a background and credit check. I just got a call from HR asking why I have an account that went to collections. That account is my unpaid tuition that I was not able to make payments for. Until that is paid off, I can't register, so I've been putting off going back to school. She asked me why I haven't made payments, if I have a timeframe in which I plan on paying it off, and why it got to that point.

I told her ive been unable to make payments due to not having a job, I recently had a baby, payments were supposed to be 500-600 a month, which I honestly could not afford on top of rent and other bills. I don't qualify for financial aid.

I know it's a bank and they would want to hire people who are financially stable in a sense, but the credit union I used to work for NEVER questioned me the way this bank has. I don't have bad credit, I'm working on building it, I've had a credit history for about 2 years, so honestly not much time. I guess I'm just annoyed that I'm being questioned when it's a debt I constantly think about as I want to go back to school. Then again, I don't have a job to necessarily make payments, and we've barely been making ends meet with how much my husband makes. We've been living paycheck to paycheck this past year.

I know that it's required for the job, the credit union I used to work for also made sure we had money in the bank and never overdrafted our account, but I don't understand how this collection would necessarily impact my employment with them directly.

It's been a frustrating, hard year as it is. This job would be helping us out tremendously if I'm given the opportunity.