My first experience was 2-3 years ago, while having training for my first job in Pune, India.
I forgot what unix flavor was that btw
I learned shell scripting, and that was fun though got stressed for passing the exam.
After back to home country assigned to project using Sun Solaris. I was able to explore and developing my scripting skill there.
At the end of 2008 I joined another company and work as core network engineer (telecommunication), now I rarely have time to develop my skill and interest bcz unix skill is not the most important here..
But for having familiar with unix based system and scripting, it was a big plus to me in my work