diff --git a/gitprofile.config.ts b/gitprofile.config.ts
index c9661bc..00e8980 100644
--- a/gitprofile.config.ts
+++ b/gitprofile.config.ts
@@ -80,10 +80,15 @@ const CONFIG = {
   seo: {
     title: 'Ilia Dobkin — SDET & Test Automation Engineer',
     description:
-      'Software Development Engineer in Test with deep experience in Cypress, Playwright, Selenium, CI/CD, and end-to-end test automation.',
+      'Software Development Engineer in Test with 20+ years across product, platform, and industrial test automation — Cypress, Playwright, Selenium, CI/CD, accessibility, and regulated domains.',
     imageURL: '',
   },
   location: 'Thornhill, Ontario, Canada',
+  about: [
+    'Driven software engineer with 20+ years of experience spanning product, platform, and industrial test automation — from global audit and financial systems (CaseWare, MNP, JazzIt) to modern web delivery for startups and enterprises alike.',
+    'Builds and maintains a self-hosted infrastructure lab (Proxmox, Ansible, Caddy, CI runners) that mirrors production-grade DevOps practices.',
+    'Seeking roles where I can provide testing guidance, strengthen CI/CD operations, and collaborate with teams to optimize product delivery.',
+  ],
   social: {
     linkedin: 'idobkin',
     x: '',
@@ -108,48 +113,90 @@ const CONFIG = {
   },
   resume: {
     fileUrl: '/resume.pdf',
+    sectionTitle: 'Core strengths',
     previewLines: [
-      'Driven software engineer with deep experience in product, platform, and industrial test automation systems, from audit and financial software to modern web delivery.',
-      'Seeking roles where I can provide testing guidance, strengthen development operations through continuous integration, and collaborate with teams to optimize product delivery.',
-      '',
-      'Core strengths: end-to-end test automation (Cypress, Playwright, Selenium), CI/CD integration, accessibility (AODA/WCAG), and frameworks built for team adoption.',
+      'E2E test automation (Cypress, Playwright, Selenium), BDD (SpecFlow, Cucumber), and accessibility (AODA / WCAG).',
+      'Observability (Grafana, Prometheus), IaC (Terraform), and API and performance testing (Postman, Artillery).',
+      'Reusable frameworks built for team adoption.',
     ],
   },
   skills: [
     'Cypress',
     'Playwright',
     'Selenium',
+    'SilkTest',
+    'SpecFlow',
+    'Cucumber',
+    'Gherkin',
+    'BDD',
     'TypeScript',
     'JavaScript',
     'C#',
     'Python',
     'Java',
     '.NET',
+    'ASP.NET',
     'Node.js',
+    'Spring Boot',
+    'PyTest',
+    'JUnit',
+    'HTML',
+    'CSS',
+    'jQuery',
+    'REST API',
+    'Page object model',
+    'Cross-browser testing',
+    'Mobile testing',
     'GitHub Actions',
+    'GitHub',
     'GitLab CI',
+    'Bitbucket',
     'Jenkins',
     'Azure DevOps',
-    'Bitbucket Pipelines',
     'Ansible',
+    'Terraform',
+    'CI/CD',
+    'Self-hosted runners',
     'Docker',
+    'Proxmox',
     'AWS',
-    'GCP',
+    'AWS Lambda',
     'Azure',
+    'GCP',
     'PostgreSQL',
     'MySQL',
     'SQL Server',
+    'DB2',
+    'Informatica',
+    'ETL',
     'Postman',
     'Artillery',
+    'JMeter',
     'Grafana',
     'Prometheus',
-    'SpecFlow',
-    'Cucumber',
-    'Gherkin',
+    'Sentry',
+    'DataDog',
     'AODA / WCAG',
     'Agile / Scrum',
+    'Shift-left QA',
     'Jira',
+    'Confluence',
     'Git',
+    'TestRail',
+    'Twilio',
+    'WordPress',
+    'CaseWare',
+    'CaseView',
+    'Crystal Reports',
+    'Linux',
+    'Caddy',
+    'TrueNAS',
+    'Vaultwarden',
+    'Gitea',
+    'SonarQube',
+    'n8n',
+    'DNS',
+    'Local LLM / GPU',
   ],
   experiences: [],
   certifications: [],
diff --git a/global.d.ts b/global.d.ts
index d4efea1..a54d74a 100644
--- a/global.d.ts
+++ b/global.d.ts
@@ -217,6 +217,11 @@ interface Resume {
    */
   fileUrl?: string;
 
+  /**
+   * Card heading (e.g. Core strengths)
+   */
+  sectionTitle?: string;
+
   /**
    * Preview lines shown on the profile page
    */
@@ -345,6 +350,11 @@ interface Config {
    */
   location?: string;
 
+  /**
+   * About me paragraphs (shown at top of sidebar; when set, GitHub bio is hidden on the avatar card)
+   */
+  about?: Array<string>;
+
   /**
    * Social links
    */
diff --git a/public/resume.pdf b/public/resume.pdf
index 01dfa5e..9735a0a 100644
Binary files a/public/resume.pdf and b/public/resume.pdf differ
diff --git a/src/components/about-card/index.tsx b/src/components/about-card/index.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c43da99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/components/about-card/index.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+import { skeleton } from '../../utils';
+
+const AboutCard = ({
+  loading,
+  paragraphs,
+}: {
+  loading: boolean;
+  paragraphs: string[];
+}) => {
+  return (
+    <div className="card shadow-lg card-sm bg-base-100">
+      <div className="card-body">
+        <div className="mx-3">
+          <h5 className="card-title">
+            {loading ? (
+              skeleton({ widthCls: 'w-36', heightCls: 'h-8' })
+            ) : (
+              <span className="text-base-content opacity-70">About me</span>
+            )}
+          </h5>
+        </div>
+        <div className="text-base-content text-sm mt-2 mx-3">
+          {loading ? (
+            <div className="flex flex-col gap-2">
+              {skeleton({ widthCls: 'w-full', heightCls: 'h-4', shape: 'rounded' })}
+              {skeleton({ widthCls: 'w-11/12', heightCls: 'h-4', shape: 'rounded' })}
+              {skeleton({ widthCls: 'w-full', heightCls: 'h-4', shape: 'rounded' })}
+            </div>
+          ) : (
+            <div className="space-y-3 opacity-80 leading-relaxed">
+              {paragraphs.map((p, i) => (
+                <p key={i}>{p}</p>
+              ))}
+            </div>
+          )}
+        </div>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  );
+};
+
+export default AboutCard;
diff --git a/src/components/avatar-card/index.tsx b/src/components/avatar-card/index.tsx
index f08c0ee..3009cc2 100644
--- a/src/components/avatar-card/index.tsx
+++ b/src/components/avatar-card/index.tsx
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ interface AvatarCardProps {
   loading: boolean;
   avatarRing: boolean;
   resumeFileUrl?: string;
+  /** When true, omit GitHub bio (e.g. when About me is in config). */
+  suppressBio?: boolean;
+  /** When true, omit resume button (PDF is linked from Core strengths). */
+  suppressResumeDownload?: boolean;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -23,6 +27,8 @@ const AvatarCard: React.FC<AvatarCardProps> = ({
   loading,
   avatarRing,
   resumeFileUrl,
+  suppressBio = false,
+  suppressResumeDownload = false,
 }): React.JSX.Element => {
   return (
     <div className="card shadow-lg card-sm bg-base-100">
@@ -70,13 +76,16 @@ const AvatarCard: React.FC<AvatarCardProps> = ({
               </span>
             )}
           </h5>
-          <div className="mt-3 text-base-content font-mono">
-            {loading || !profile
-              ? skeleton({ widthCls: 'w-48', heightCls: 'h-5' })
-              : profile.bio}
-          </div>
+          {!suppressBio && (
+            <div className="mt-3 text-base-content font-mono">
+              {loading || !profile
+                ? skeleton({ widthCls: 'w-48', heightCls: 'h-5' })
+                : profile.bio}
+            </div>
+          )}
         </div>
         {resumeFileUrl &&
+          !suppressResumeDownload &&
           (loading ? (
             <div className="mt-6">
               {skeleton({ widthCls: 'w-40', heightCls: 'h-8' })}
diff --git a/src/components/gitprofile.tsx b/src/components/gitprofile.tsx
index 485b6bd..3154bce 100644
--- a/src/components/gitprofile.tsx
+++ b/src/components/gitprofile.tsx
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import { DEFAULT_THEMES } from '../constants/default-themes';
 import ThemeChanger from './theme-changer';
 import { BG_COLOR } from '../constants';
 import AvatarCard from './avatar-card';
+import AboutCard from './about-card';
 import { Profile } from '../interfaces/profile';
 import DetailsCard from './details-card';
 import SkillCard from './skill-card';
@@ -200,11 +201,22 @@ const GitProfile = ({ config }: { config: Config }) => {
                       themeConfig={sanitizedConfig.themeConfig}
                     />
                   )}
+                  {sanitizedConfig.about.length !== 0 && (
+                    <AboutCard
+                      loading={loading}
+                      paragraphs={sanitizedConfig.about}
+                    />
+                  )}
                   <AvatarCard
                     profile={profile}
                     loading={loading}
                     avatarRing={sanitizedConfig.themeConfig.displayAvatarRing}
                     resumeFileUrl={sanitizedConfig.resume.fileUrl}
+                    suppressBio={sanitizedConfig.about.length !== 0}
+                    suppressResumeDownload={
+                      Boolean(sanitizedConfig.resume.fileUrl) &&
+                      sanitizedConfig.resume.previewLines.length !== 0
+                    }
                   />
                   <DetailsCard
                     profile={profile}
@@ -212,20 +224,21 @@ const GitProfile = ({ config }: { config: Config }) => {
                     github={sanitizedConfig.github}
                     social={sanitizedConfig.social}
                   />
+                  {sanitizedConfig.resume.fileUrl &&
+                    sanitizedConfig.resume.previewLines.length !== 0 && (
+                      <ResumeCard
+                        loading={loading}
+                        fileUrl={sanitizedConfig.resume.fileUrl}
+                        sectionTitle={sanitizedConfig.resume.sectionTitle}
+                        previewLines={sanitizedConfig.resume.previewLines}
+                      />
+                    )}
                   {sanitizedConfig.skills.length !== 0 && (
                     <SkillCard
                       loading={loading}
                       skills={sanitizedConfig.skills}
                     />
                   )}
-                  {sanitizedConfig.resume.fileUrl &&
-                    sanitizedConfig.resume.previewLines.length !== 0 && (
-                      <ResumeCard
-                        loading={loading}
-                        fileUrl={sanitizedConfig.resume.fileUrl}
-                        previewLines={sanitizedConfig.resume.previewLines}
-                      />
-                    )}
                   {sanitizedConfig.certifications.length !== 0 && (
                     <CertificationCard
                       loading={loading}
diff --git a/src/components/resume-card/index.tsx b/src/components/resume-card/index.tsx
index 137a99e..2266685 100644
--- a/src/components/resume-card/index.tsx
+++ b/src/components/resume-card/index.tsx
@@ -4,12 +4,14 @@ import { resolvePublicUrl, skeleton } from '../../utils';
 interface ResumeCardProps {
   loading: boolean;
   fileUrl: string;
+  sectionTitle: string;
   previewLines: string[];
 }
 
 const ResumeCard = ({
   loading,
   fileUrl,
+  sectionTitle,
   previewLines,
 }: ResumeCardProps) => {
   const pdfPath = resolvePublicUrl(fileUrl);
@@ -65,7 +67,7 @@ const ResumeCard = ({
             {loading ? (
               skeleton({ widthCls: 'w-32', heightCls: 'h-8' })
             ) : (
-              <span className="text-base-content opacity-70">Resume</span>
+              <span className="text-base-content opacity-70">{sectionTitle}</span>
             )}
           </h5>
         </div>
diff --git a/src/interfaces/sanitized-config.tsx b/src/interfaces/sanitized-config.tsx
index fc44279..a626761 100644
--- a/src/interfaces/sanitized-config.tsx
+++ b/src/interfaces/sanitized-config.tsx
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ export interface SanitizedSocial {
 
 export interface SanitizedResume {
   fileUrl?: string;
+  sectionTitle: string;
   previewLines: Array<string>;
 }
 
@@ -131,6 +132,7 @@ export interface SanitizedConfig {
   projects: SanitizedProjects;
   seo: SanitizedSEO;
   location?: string;
+  about: Array<string>;
   social: SanitizedSocial;
   resume: SanitizedResume;
   skills: Array<string>;
diff --git a/src/utils/index.tsx b/src/utils/index.tsx
index bc2c0e3..b33a03b 100644
--- a/src/utils/index.tsx
+++ b/src/utils/index.tsx
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ export const getSanitizedConfig = (
         imageURL: config?.seo?.imageURL,
       },
       location: config?.location,
+      about: config?.about?.filter((p) => p.trim()) || [],
       social: {
         linkedin: config?.social?.linkedin,
         x: config?.social?.x,
@@ -100,6 +101,7 @@ export const getSanitizedConfig = (
       },
       resume: {
         fileUrl: config?.resume?.fileUrl || '',
+        sectionTitle: config?.resume?.sectionTitle || 'Core strengths',
         previewLines: config?.resume?.previewLines || [],
       },
       skills: config?.skills || [],