Jacky Angus worked as an editor for various publishing houses, including Jacaranda Press, Niugini Press (PNG), Penguin Books Australia, and the Franciscan Press in Jerusalem. Jobs in broadcast journalism with ABC radio and television followed: on-camera reporting for This Day Night, and scriptwriting for ABC Radio. Later work in refugee settlement, multicultural policy, and foreign aid in Indonesia led to an interest in Islam. This took Jacky to the Middle East in 1990, where she worked as a newspaper sub-editor, and as general manager of a local publisher in Cairo.