Columnist and reporter Jim Shahin began his career in journalism at an early age, contributing sports articles while in high school to his hometown newspaper, the Midland Daily News, in Midland, Michigan. While a student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Jim Shahin was a staff writer for the Michigan Daily.

Upon receiving his B.A. with a teaching certificate from the University of Michigan in December 1976, Jim Shahin traveled the country, picking up post-college life experiences. After leaving Ann Arbor for Los Angeles, Jim Shahin moved to Maine, where he worked as a Public Information Specialist for the state's Department of Conservation. Jim Shahin moved to Austin, Texas, where he wrote music articles for the alternative weekly The Austin Sun. After the Sun folded, Jim Shahin was hired as editor-in-chief of the arts and culture publication Rumours.

By January 1980, Jim Shahin attracted the attention of the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, which hired him as a full-time Staff Reporter. At the Austin American-Statesman, Jim Shahin covered general assignments and local news, often writing stories on issues related to urban development. In April 1984, alternative weekly the Austin Chronicle recruited Jim Shahin to create and manage its politics section. As its first-ever Politics Editor, Jim Shahin assigned and edited stories, wrote articles and penned a regular column. By guiding the politics section for its first five years, Jim Shahin is credited by former colleagues with establishing for the weekly paper an influential and enduring role in Austin's political life.

Diversifying the subject material and style of his reporting, Jim Shahin joined the staff of American Way Magazine, a free in-flight magazine for American Airlines patrons. As Senior Editor for American Way Magazine, beginning in February 1988, Jim Shahin supervised fellow staff and freelance writers, setting the course of the periodical and crafting stories for publication. In June 1993, American Way Magazine awarded Jim Shahin with his own humor column, which he spent the following 15 years shaping into one of the flagship features of the periodical. On several occasions, Jim Shahin’s columns for American Way Magazine were syndicated by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times syndicates. In addition, Harcourt Brace, the University of Wisconsin Press, and others anthologized Jim Shahin’s articles in such books as The Writer’s Workplace: Essays and Profiles of Popular Culture—A Reader. Jim Shahin has written for GQ, the Washington Post, Spin, Texas Monthly, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.