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I do often look through NAFEMS, some of the stuff there is incredible. I might have solved my experience problem though, im currently looking at working with dassault systems and their living heart project (seriously cool FEA!):
http://www.3ds.com/products-services/simulia/solutions/life-sciences/the-living-heart-project
I didnt know FEA wasnt commonly used in the oil industry! I would have assumed anyone with that much money would just default to it. I guess as high performance computers become cheaper it will be adopted in more industries. Ill keep an eye out on this area because i would happily work in the industry.
Isotropic-
It's all driven by standards, for our work we use API 6A and API 5CT which cover subsea equipment, tubing and drill pipe and the most analysis they see is by hand calc for tension, burst and collapse. As all our stuff is temporary installation fatigue isn't too much of a problem and we aren't asked for the absolute values so we just have ceilings that we work to but with the new standards coming in that will change so we are looking to standardise more components so we minimise analysis. Sorry for rambling, still early!
Living heart project looks pretty cool, be interesting to see the applications for it!
Bernhard
Are you or your university a member of NAFEMS? they have heaps of resources and the like, although I expect you already know that! Good luck with getting experience. On a side note, I work in the oil industry doing susbsea intervention work, soon (well, could actually be ages, have been hearing about it for a while) to be introduced is a new standard, API 17G which calls for more extensive FEA testing of designs and design by analysis so that should be a market opening up further in the future for your skill set!