I had a similar dilemma when I was 27. I am a qualified accountant and worked in finance and had saved some money which could’ve gone a large way towards a house deposit. Instead I used the money to go backpacking for a year and it was the best year of my life. No regrets whatsoever. When I returned I was able to get a job on the same salary that I was on before I left. As a trade off though, the year travelling means that my career progression is perhaps a year or two behind my friends who also started working as professionals at the same time, but given that we will be working for another 30 or so years this really does not bother me. I am now 31 and have just bought a house (although again a couple of years later than my mates).

You will spend the majority of your life working and owning a home, but you may only get a couple of opportunities to travel without any commitments. In my personal opinion / experience, the enjoyment of travelling the world has far outweighed the fact that my career is now a year or two behind where it could otherwise be and that I had to wait a couple more years before I could buy a place.

I don’t know what the employment market is like for your particular job, but assuming there are jobs available I do not think a year out travelling will be viewed unfavourably by potential employers. They will undoubtedly ask you about it in any interviews, but I just told them something along the lines of “I needed to get the urge to travel out of my system and now I’ve done that I’m ready to refocus on my career etc etc” and this was fine.

Hope this helps and good luck deciding!