Tom McCarthy
Hi! I'm a Melbourne-based IT student with hands-on experience across systems and software. Focused on building practical, efficient solutions that deliver real impact.
About
I’m originally from regional Victoria and moved to Melbourne four years ago to pursue my studies. I chose Information Technology as a broad and future-focused foundation.
RMIT’s IT pathway program exposed me to the full spectrum of technology disciplines. I gained hands-on experience in networking with Cisco hardware and Packet Tracer, built and managed virtualised environments across Windows Server, macOS and Linux, and designed functional web applications from wireframe to deployment.
My coursework has included AWS cloud infrastructure, software engineering in Java and Python, full-stack web development, cybersecurity fundamentals, blockchain technologies, and project management in collaborative environments.
Outside of uni, I read daily and keep up with the EPL.
What I'm doing now: [ View ] · Education: [ View ] · What I'm reading: Goodreads
As of: 21/04/26
I’m in my final semester of my Bachelor’s in IT.
Recently I’ve been focusing on cloud infrastructure and its financial impact. I’ve completed the FinOps Certified Practitioner and the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certifications. Next up I'm planning on completing the AWS Certified Solutions Architect and Azure's AI-901 beta. These two certs will help to flesh out my cloud credentials.
I’m also setting up a dual-boot environment on my PC, adding Linux alongside Windows. Early in my studies in 2023, I enjoyed deploying virtualised Linux Mint environments, so I’m returning to that ecosystem and making Linux my primary daily OS.
Archive
08/11/25
I’m on holidays before my final semester of the Bachelor of IT.
To stay busy, I completed a small FinOps course that a friend recommended. I was also able to complete it for free through a scholarship, which was a nice bonus.
I also earned the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification while the concepts were still fresh from my Cloud Architecting unit last semester.
Other than that, I’ve been retrieving and refactoring a lot of previous uni work to put onto my personal GitHub.
I’ve also been reading up on bitchat and I’m really impressed by its use cases and potential as a peer-to-peer Bluetooth Low Energy chat app. I can’t believe something like it was not more mainstream earlier. You can read more and find the whitepaper here: bitchat.free
Bachelor's Degree of Information Technology - RMIT (2026)
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - AWS
FinOps Certified Practitioner - FinOps Foundation
Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice (CPP41419) - Entry Education
In progress
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2025 Foundations Associate: 1Z0-1085-25
Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals: AI-901
Additional badges: Credly
Projects
bayesian-coinflip/
A small probability project demonstrating Bayesian updating using the Beta-Binomial model to estimate coin bias and quantify uncertainty.
Bayesian inference is fundamentally about updating belief by combining prior assumptions with observed evidence to produce a posterior distribution.
python · probability · bayesian inference
university-work/
A collection of software engineering projects developed throughout my Diploma, Associate, and Bachelor studies.
Includes a modular Java Swing resort booking system, a layered library management CRUD application backed by SQLite, and a foundational OOP banking simulation.
java · python · swing · sqlite · oop · layered architecture · event-driven programming · file I/O · data validation
jdl/
A minimal browser-based text editor focused on simplicity, speed, and portability across environments.
Designed to run entirely client-side with no storage dependencies, supporting file creation, editing and loading directly from the user’s device.
html · css · javascript · browser tooling
Forthcoming projects:
ci-cd-pipeline/
A robust DevOps workflow implementing automated build and deployment. Integrates static code analysis, unit testing and code coverage reporting to mitigate risk in Agile environments.
devops · ci-cd · automation · agile
pong-game/
A progressively developed Pong implementation focused on improving software structure, modularity and UI design over multiple iterations.
Expands from a basic two-player prototype into a feature-complete application with AI opponents, menu systems and improved game logic.
python · pygame · game dev · ui systems