In my experience, most of my mates who took the semester off never came back. Mostly, I believe, they weren't doing well at school or didn't really want to pursue the degree they did and working somewhere else or doing something, anything actually held their appeal more; startup company, bible camp, philanthropy.
If you want to travel, buy stuff or make money, just finish school - there's a whole lifetime full of that ahead of you to do that while balancing little things like rent, mortgage, shrink and alimony bills.
And about the job - you really won't know until you do it. That's why it's best at the end of every year to evaluate if you're hitting your own goals. No career counselor, mentor, boss, or HR department will be able to tell that for you and certainly don't rely on the company or a trade organization (P Eng, CMA, some IT certification) to lay out your career path for you. You're the best person to look out for yourself.
