diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 16ad6ce..ef00d5a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,22 +1,56 @@
-<h1 align="center">Hi 👋, I'm Elias Stepanik</h1>
-<h3 align="center">A passionate front-/backend developer from Germany</h3>
+<!-- HERO -->
+<h1 align="center">Elias Stepanik</h1>
+<p align="center"><b>.NET & Rust engineer</b> — I build reliable backends, APIs, and tooling.</p>
 
-<p align="left"> <img src="https://komarev.com/ghpvc/?username=eliasstepanik&label=Profile%20views&color=0e75b6&style=flat" alt="eliasstepanik" /> </p>
+<p align="center">
+  <a href="mailto:eliasstepanik@proton.me">
+    <img alt="Email" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Email-eliasstepanik%40proton.me-000?logo=minutemailer" />
+  </a>
+  <a href="https://sailehd.de">
+    <img alt="Portfolio" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Portfolio-sailehd.de-111?logo=firefoxbrowser" />
+  </a>
+</p>
 
-<p align="left"> <a href="https://github.com/ryo-ma/github-profile-trophy"><img src="https://github-profile-trophy.vercel.app/?username=eliasstepanik" alt="eliasstepanik" /></a> </p>
+<p align="center">
+  <b>Open to:</b> Backend/.NET, Rust, Platform · <b>Location:</b> EU · Remote-friendly
+</p>
 
-- 👨‍💻 All of my projects are available at [https://github.com/eliasstepanik](https://github.com/eliasstepanik)
+---
 
-- 💬 Ask me about **asp.net core, c#, rust**
+## What I do
+- Design and ship backend services and APIs (Rust, ASP.NET Core, C#)
+- Build systems tools and services in Rust/C#
+- Automate CI/CD and containerization (GitHub Actions, Docker, K8s)
+- Work with SQL/NoSQL (PostgreSQL/MariaDB, MongoDB)
+- Create admin UIs/dashboards when needed (Blazor (DotNet) / Rust / Javascript)
 
-- 📫 How to reach me **eliasstepanik@proton.me**
+## Selected projects
+> Outcome-focused, with public links.
 
+- **AutoProxy** — automation tooling for proxy config/rotation  
+  [`/AutoProxy`](https://github.com/eliasstepanik/AutoProxy)
+- **IonosDDNSUpdater** — lightweight DNS updater (C#)  
+  [`/IonosDDNSUpdater`](https://github.com/eliasstepanik/IonosDDNSUpdater)
+- **Pathtracer** — PBR experimentation  
+  [`/Pathtracer`](https://github.com/eliasstepanik/Pathtracer)
 
-<h3 align="left">Languages and Tools:</h3>
-<p align="left"> <a href="https://developer.android.com" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/android/android-original-wordmark.svg" alt="android" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.arduino.cc/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://cdn.worldvectorlogo.com/logos/arduino-1.svg" alt="arduino" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/gnu_bash/gnu_bash-icon.svg" alt="bash" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://getbootstrap.com" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/bootstrap/bootstrap-plain-wordmark.svg" alt="bootstrap" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.cprogramming.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/c/c-original.svg" alt="c" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.w3schools.com/cs/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/csharp/csharp-original.svg" alt="csharp" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.w3schools.com/css/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/css3/css3-original-wordmark.svg" alt="css3" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://dart.dev" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/dartlang/dartlang-icon.svg" alt="dart" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.docker.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/docker/docker-original-wordmark.svg" alt="docker" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://dotnet.microsoft.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/dot-net/dot-net-original-wordmark.svg" alt="dotnet" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://flutter.dev" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/flutterio/flutterio-icon.svg" alt="flutter" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://git-scm.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/git-scm/git-scm-icon.svg" alt="git" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.w3.org/html/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/html5/html5-original-wordmark.svg" alt="html5" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.java.com" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/java/java-original.svg" alt="java" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.jenkins.io" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/jenkins/jenkins-icon.svg" alt="jenkins" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://kubernetes.io" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/kubernetes/kubernetes-icon.svg" alt="kubernetes" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.linux.org/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/linux/linux-original.svg" alt="linux" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://mariadb.org/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/mariadb/mariadb-icon.svg" alt="mariadb" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.mongodb.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/mongodb/mongodb-original-wordmark.svg" alt="mongodb" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.mysql.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/mysql/mysql-original-wordmark.svg" alt="mysql" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.nginx.com" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/nginx/nginx-original.svg" alt="nginx" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://opencv.org/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/opencv/opencv-icon.svg" alt="opencv" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.photoshop.com/en" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/photoshop/photoshop-line.svg" alt="photoshop" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.php.net" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/php/php-original.svg" alt="php" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.python.org" target="_blank"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devicons/devicon/master/icons/python/python-original.svg" alt="python" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.rabbitmq.com" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-icon.svg" alt="rabbitMQ" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://www.sqlite.org/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/sqlite/sqlite-icon.svg" alt="sqlite" width="40" height="40"/> </a> <a href="https://unity.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://www.vectorlogo.zone/logos/unity3d/unity3d-icon.svg" alt="unity" width="40" height="40"/> </a> </p>
+## Skills (short)
+**Backend:** ASP.NET Core, C#, Rust, RabbitMQ  
+**Datastores:** PostgreSQL/MariaDB, MongoDB, SQLite, Spacetime DB
+**Infra:** Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Nginx, GitHub Actions  
+**Frontend:** Blazor, Flutter, HTML/CSS, Javascript, Rust
 
-<p><img align="left" src="https://github-readme-stats.vercel.app/api/top-langs?username=eliasstepanik&show_icons=true&locale=en&layout=compact" alt="eliasstepanik" /></p>
+## How I work
+- Tests on critical paths; benchmarks for hot code  
+- Tracing/metrics and brief runbooks in the repo  
+- Small PRs; automated builds/linting; tagged releases
 
-<p>&nbsp;<img align="center" src="https://github-readme-stats.vercel.app/api?username=eliasstepanik&show_icons=true&locale=en" alt="eliasstepanik" /></p>
+## Contact
+- Email: **eliasstepanik@proton.me**  
+- Portfolio: **https://sailehd.de**  
 
-<p><img align="center" src="https://github-readme-streak-stats.herokuapp.com/?user=eliasstepanik&" alt="eliasstepanik" /></p>
+<!-- Minimal, useful stats -->
+<p align="left">
+  <img src="https://github-readme-stats.vercel.app/api?username=eliasstepanik&show_icons=true&hide_title=true&count_private=true" height="150" />
+  <img src="https://github-readme-stats.vercel.app/api/top-langs?username=eliasstepanik&layout=compact&hide_title=true" height="150" />
+</p>